Obama eyes Georgia and the South
June 30, 2008 at 9:33 am by Scott Freeman in NewsSince 1972, no Democratic candidate for president has won more than a third of the Southern white vote with two exceptions: Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. And in the last two presidential elections, the Republicans made a clean sweep of the South.
Barack Obama plans to put the South into play, according to this story in today’s New York Times. Obama’s campaign notes there are 600,000 blacks in Georgia alone who aren’t registered to vote, and a pool of progressive, younger white voters.
Obama is already running television spots here, and will come to Atlanta on July 7 for a fund-raiser at 103 West in Buckhead.
Smart move: One recent poll shows Obama and John McCain are in a statistical dead heat in Georgia. One released this week, however, shows McCain with a 10 point lead.
Emory University’s Merle Black explained to the Times why Obama’s strategy is smart: When the Democrats give up the South, they need to win 70 percent of the rest of the electoral votes.
It’s no coincidence that Carter and Clinton also happen to be the only two Democrats elected president since the Johnson administration.
Send to a friend:
June 30th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Obama is not going to be close in Georgia when it comes down to it. His strategies are flawed:
http://www.beyondthepolls.net/2008/06/todays-new-york-times-contains-article.html
June 30th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Thanks for the link, JD. That’s an interesting, and possibly quite valid, perspective. That blogger points out that W took Georgia by 548,105 votes in ‘04. But will McCain be able to generate that kind of support? And will Obama pull in those who have grown disenchanted with the Bush policies? Obama may not win Georgia, but I think he’ll do a lot better than Kerry did in ‘04. And at least Obama’s not writing us off as most Democratic candidates do.
June 30th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
How lazy do you have to be to not be registered? Fill out a simple one page form and mail it in. You don’t have to go the courthouse or library or even pay postage.
Anyone that lazy is going to be uninformed and the WORST thing they could do is vote.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
I wonder if that is because Carter and Clinton don’t disregard us as ignorant and inbred, as do many other parts of the country.
Southerners are historically distrustful of outsiders, especially from the government.
If so, can Obama and the Democrat Party overcome that?