[Betaille]

"Nominate a Clinton like Dem from a southern state"

I'm skeptical... Clinton won because of alot of Economic factors that were extreme one way or the other. He probably wouldn't have won more than 1 or 2 southern states had it not been for Perot splitting the Southern White vote BOTH TIMES Clinton ran.
I'm not saying no dem could ever win a southern state. I was just pointing out that your NJ example could easily be countered by a Georgia example(used to be solid dem, now solid republican). Constituencies change over time, you can always make things sound bad for the republicans if you try hard enough(NY used to vote heavily REPUBLICAN in the 20's, that would never happen today!!!)... in fact the NY times makes an entire publication out of it.

[doug from upland]

Clinton won the first time with about 43% of the vote. Thank you, Ross Perot.