I too am tired of this obsession with Democrats and the South. It's a constant media theme, and at least when it comes to presidential politics (not the only thing I realize) it's really just irrelevant. A Democrat can *easily* win without winning a single Southern state.
It took me 5 seconds with an electoral vote calculator to come up with a winning group of states. Roughly from Left to Right - HI, WA, OR, CA, NV, NM, MN, WI, IL, MI, OH, WV, PA, NJ, DE, NY, CT, RI, MA, VT, NH, ME.
Are all those states a lock? Of course not. But, going by 2000 results they're all either a lock or within clear reach. Additional possible winners include - AZ, IA. That's all without the South (WV doesn't count).
Now, looking to the South the realistic possibilities, without doing anything substantially different, are Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, and maybe, just maybe Kentucky (well, probably not).
Then of course there's Florida, which I left off because it annoys me so much. My election 2000 prediction was "whoever wins Florida will win." How wrong I was.
