I am not shocked at Obama’s southern success
I don’t understand why so called “political experts” are shocked at the success that Barack Obama is having in southern states. He won South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. It also looks like he will also win Louisiana. In a T-P article (announcing that he will be at Tulane on Thursday) they state:
Obama has shown unexpected strength in the South.
Let’s look at the numbers, shall we?
According to CNN exit polls in Georgia, a majority of the Democratic voters yesterday were black (52%), and a super-majority of those black voters (87.4%) voted for Barack Obama. (Only 2% of the voters in the Republican primary were black)
Compare that to the 2004 Georgia exit polls in the general election where only 25% of the overall vote in Georgia was from black voters.
Barack Obama winning Georgia in the 2008 general election? That would absolutely be unexpected. The southern strategy of Nixon and Reagan is alive and well. They know that there are a lot of racists in the south who do not like that the Democratic Party is actually… *gasp*… willing to treat black people as equals (the horror!). They target the old school “southern democrats” who split from the Democratic party after the Democrats pushed for civil rights.
However, Barack Obama getting success among current southern Democrats is hardly shocking at all. A large percentage of those voters are black voters who are likely to identify with Obama and who are excited at the potential to get the first black president. To suggest that Barack Obama’s success among current southern Democrats is “unexpected” shows a complete ignorance of the political landscape of the south.