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Days after he'd been nominated by Democrats for president in the summer of 1988, while enjoying a double-digit lead in the polls, Michael Dukakis took what he fancied as a Trumanesque whistle-stop train tour. The train dipped into the northeastern corner of Arkansas for one quick depot stop. It wasn't clear why. Maybe he and his advisers surmised as follows: Since Dukakis's National Governors Association pal -- a fellow named Clinton -- was the governor there, then Dukakis might have a shot at those six Southern electoral votes. He didn't. I was plopped on this train and granted an interview...

First, let me get the obligatory “sorry for the vanity post” out of the way, although truthfully I am not sorry, this is something that I need to get off my chest and needs to be discussed. The purpose of this post is to address those who are upset at Fred Thompson’s performance in last nights debate because he 1. Did not attack John McCain 2. Was mean to poor old Mike Huckabee. It is time for a lesson in Southern Politics 101 : As has been said ad nauseum on here already, Fred Thompson has always planned on employing...

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A narrative has been constructed by Democrats and their media allies castigating Republicans as purveyors of a racist "Southern strategy" to explain the transition of the South from solidly Democrat to solidly Republican. If a tree can be judged by its fruit, this narrative is backwards. Bobby Jindal, a second generation Indian-American, is going to be the new Republican Governor of Louisiana.  Although governors who are black have been elected in Virginia and Massachusetts, this election marks the first time the support of white Southern voters has propelled a non-white governor into office.  Jindal's election is evidence that the much-reviled...

Fred Thompson's road to the nomination, his advisers say, begins with a bridge to South Carolina. Now -- a bridge has two ends, and it looks like the anchorage is Iowa. But how can Thompson possibly compete with Rudy Giuliani** on Feb. 5? New York? California? New Jersey? Thanks to a quirk in the Republican delegate allocation schema, conservative, Republican candidates have an edge. The Republican National Committee awards bonus delegates to states based on their performance in general elections. States that always vote Republican get additional delegates; states like New York that vote Democratic do not. Bonus delegates account...

L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia, who made history as the nation's first elected black governor, is preparing to campaign aggressively for Barack Obama, and predicted in an interview that the charismatic young candidate could shatter the Republican Party's virtual lock on the South. "He's not race-less," Wilder said of Obama, "but the skin color is of no moment. I don't think he would be an easy target for the Republicans." The unstinting embrace by Wilder, now the mayor of Richmond, could be important in Virginia and other southern states, where his reputation still looms large and the African-American vote could...

L. Douglas Wilder, who in 1989 became the nation's first elected black governor, said in an interview published today that Sen. Barack Obama could loosen the Republican Party's grip on the South.Wilder, now the mayor of Richmond, said in an interview with The Politico that he doesn't think Obama "would be an easy target for the Republicans," adding that he will campaign for the first-term Illinois senator.The 76-year-old Wilder, known for his candor, criticized African-American activists who have questioned whether Obama is "black enough" in his style and political leanings. Wilder said the rift has arisen because Obama is not...

Poll Date Giuliani Thompson McCain Romney Gingrich Spread RCP Average 06/13 to 07/30 25.7 23.0 12.3 7.3 -- Giuliani +2.7 American Res. Group 07/26 - 07/30 28 27 10 7 7 Giuliani +1 CNN 07/16 - 07/18 28 17 20 4 6 Giuliani +8 Mason-Dixon 06/13 - 06/15 21 25 7 11 -- Thompson +4

Fred Thompson - actor, ex-senator, former lobbyist and Republican presidential aspirant - appealed to fellow Southerners with his conservative pitch Wednesday and belittled foolishness in Washington.

John Edwards has predicted he can win in the South in 2008. "I think I have the strongest chance of changing the electoral map," Mr. Edwards told the Associated Press earlier this month. "I think we have a great chance to win, not just Ohio, but to win some Southern states." Mr. Edwards is right and wrong. A South Carolina native who was educated and now lives in North Carolina, Mr. Edwards has a built-in edge over his fellow Democrats, none of whom is from the South. Yet, even if he finds a way to translate that backyard advantage into...

MACON, Ga. - President Bush's once-solid relationship with Southern women is on the rocks. "I think history will show him to be the worst president since Ulysses S. Grant," said Barbara Knight, a self-described Republican since birth and the mother of three. "He's been an embarrassment." In the heart of Dixie, comparisons to Grant, a symbol of the Union, is the worst sort of insult, especially from a Macon woman who voted for Bush in 2000 but turned away in 2004. In recent years, Southern women have been some of Bush's biggest fans, defying the traditional gender gap in which...

MACON, Ga. President Bush's once-solid relationship with Southern women is on the rocks. "I think history will show him to be the worst president since Ulysses S. Grant," said Barbara Knight, a self-described Republican since birth and the mother of three. "He's been an embarrassment." In the heart of Dixie, comparisons to Grant, a symbol of the Union, is the worst sort of insult, especially from a Macon woman who voted for Bush in 2000 but turned away in 2004. In recent years, Southern women have been some of Bush's biggest fans, defying the traditional gender gap in which women...

Biden not worried about Southern Dems 43 minutes ago Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record) says he can hold his own in a 2008 presidential primary against Democratic contenders from the South, noting that his home state of Delaware was a "slave state." Biden dismissed the notion that he was a "Northeastern liberal" who would have a poor showing in the South against other likely contenders such as Virginia Gov. Mark Warner and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee. "Better than anybody else," Biden said, when asked on "Fox News Sunday" to...

August 18, 2006, 4:09 a.m. Can Giuliani Win the Southern GOP?They love him in South Carolina, but… By Byron York Charleston, S.C. — Rudy Giuliani could not have picked a better time to come to South Carolina. As the former New York mayor walked into Hibernian Hall here in Charleston Wednesday night, the foiled London terror plot, still unfolding, was on everyone’s mind. That, in turn, reminded everyone of September 11. And that reminded them of…Rudy Giuliani. And there he was. Giuliani had come to Charleston, and, earlier in the day, to Greenville, to raise money for Republican candidates...

If you want to understand why Democrats are the minority party in Congress, look at four states: Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Kentucky. Before the 1994 elections, when Democrats still controlled both chambers, these Southern states had 24 Democratic House members and 14 Republicans. Among senators, there were five Republicans and three Democrats. Today, there are 24 GOP House members and 15 Democrats, and all eight senators are Republicans. Democrats acknowledge that their prospects for regaining control are dim until they start winning elections in this region. Several of this year's races are lab experiments in this effort, with Democrats...

WASHINGTON -- Back in the 2004 presidential primaries, when Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont, suggested that Democrats should be competing for the votes of young men with Confederate flags on their pickups, politicians from both parties rushed to accuse him of repeating a vile Southern stereotype: the redneck with antiquated views on race. < SNIP >''Howard Dean knows about as much about the South as a hog knows about Sunday," quipped Georgia Senator Zell Miller, the conservative Democrat who supported President Bush. ''Sure, we drive pickups, but on the back of those pickups, you see a lot of American...

THE EROSION of the Democratic Party's hold on the South is one of the most important changes in postwar American politics. In 1950, only a handful of congressional districts in the region even featured Republican candidates on the ballot. Today, the GOP holds the majority of House seats below the Mason-Dixon, and in 2004 President Bush swept the South's electoral-college votes. The historic switch from blue to red over the past half century not only robbed Democrats of their assured congressional majorities, it shifted the center of Republican political power from the Northeast to the Sunbelt.

2008 is already here. Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney spoke at the Greenville County South Carolina GOP convention today. He was articulate and personable and was received very well, even by the most conservative of attendees. The result of this appearance cemented in my mind that Romney will not only be competitive but a force in 2008. Let's take a look at 2008. Here is the breakdown of all the factions in the GOP primary electorate and the pieces of the pie. Bush Wing 30% of the Party Center Right, Moderate Conservative including Conservative "pragmatics" or "realists." This wing contains those...

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney courted support for a potential presidential bid during a stop in South Carolina this weekend. Local leaders said he is beginning to build his own political base like the other presidential hopefuls that have been drawn to South Carolina's first-in-the-South 2008 presidential primary. Romney, attending a private dinner Friday night with 50 political activists in Spartanburg, ''wanted us to think about helping him with a ground game in Spartanburg County if that came to be," Spartanburg County GOP chairman Rick Beltram said. Yesterday, Romney capped his weekend visit with a breakfast with state...

Political pundits have long discounted former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential prospects, claiming that his particular brand of tough-talking, socially moderate conservatism would never play south of the Mason-Dixon Line. But Rudy has never been one to listen to conventional wisdom, and lately at least, he has been turning up the heat in southern conservative political circles. In just the last week, he endorsed Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry for re-election and met with Evangelicals in Florida. Most impressively, he actually outpaced U.S. Senator John McCain in a just-released Georgia poll, garnering the support of 28 percent of...