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November 11, 2008, 05:39 PM ET
Whistling Dixie
Match the content to the headline in today’s New York Times: “For the South, a Waning Hold on Politics.” Is the right answer A or B?
A. The president has been a Southerner for the past 20 years, but no more. Until recently, House and Senate Republican leaders were Southerners, and the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress. None of this is true any longer. Hence, the South’s “waning hold.”
B. Appalachia voted strongly Republican this year. So did Southern whites. Thomas Schaller was right: the Democratic Party should henceforth “whistle past Dixie,” writing off the South in its quest for political victory.
Here’s a hint: A makes sense (Southerners really aren’t as powerful in Washington as they have been in recent years) and B doesn’t. Why would Democrats choose now to abandon a region which since 2004 has cut the Republicans’ presidential victory margin from 153 electoral votes to 43 electoral votes; reduced the GOP advantage among Southern senators from 18-4 to 15-7 (or even 14-8, if the Democrats win the Georgia Senate runoff); and shrunk the Republicans’ Southern majority from 33 to 11 in the House of Representatives? The iron has finally become hot for Democrats in the South. Why not keep striking?
B is the theme of Times reporter Adam Nossiter’s article. Go figure.
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