States like MS and TX are essentially "Yellow Dog Republican" states now; Satan himself could be the Republican nominee and he'd win these states.
I see only one organization that has done any Romney/Obama Texas polling, and that's PPP, and the margin is a steady 6-8% across 5 polls for over a year. That's not "in play." Considering how much polling gets savaged here, and PPP in particular, I don't know why these would be accepted anyway.
Neither are "in play," Romney and Obama won't bother campaigning in these states (other than fundraising) and they won't spend money on ads. Mississippi has been R for 8 Presidential elections, typically by about a 15-25% margin; only time this didn't happen was because of Ross Perot.
Of the many arguments against Romney, the idea that he'll lose the South in a general election is one of the poorest ones; it is essentially a fabricated argument based on the idea that the views of FR are similar to the Republican electorate as a whole, which they are not, even in the "Bible Belt."
Heck, I bet a lot of the people on FR who assert they will not vote will end up doing so, as the Obama attacks on Romney get more vicious as the election approaches, and they finally realize they can't stand to give Obama the satisfaction, or see happy Democrats walking around the next day (they'll never admit they did, though).
I am afraid you know nothing of the South and the bible belt. God comes first, then country.
They wont vote for Obama ... but they will stay home before they vote for a Mormon, that’s just the way it is.
If Karl Rove says Texas is in play, it’s in play.