Is Edwards right? Is being from the South a huge advantage for a Democrat? The facts say "yes" [View All]

[draft_mario_cuomo]

The truth shall set you free. Here is the scoreboard since 1964, the year the South shifted to the repukes.

Overall record

Southern winners: Carter 76', Clinton 92', Clinton 96', Gore 2000
Southern loser: Carter 80'

Northern winners: Zero
Northern losers: Humphrey 68', McGovern 72', Mondale 84', Dukakis 88', Kerry 04'

Record in the South (defined as states of the old Confederacy)

Southerners

Carter in 76': Won 10 of 11 southern states (barely lost VA) for 118 electoral votes
Carter in 80': Won 1 southern state (Georgia) for 12 electoral votes
Clinton in 92': Won 4 southern states (LA, AR, TN, GA) for 39 electoral votes
Clinton in 96': Won 4 southern states (FL, AR, TN, LA) for 51 electoral votes
Gore in 2000: Won 1 southern state (Florida) for 25 electoral votes*


Non-Southerners

Humphrey in 68': Won 1 southern state (Texas) for 25 electoral votes
McGovern in 72': Won 0 southern states for 0 electoral votes
Mondale in 84': Won 0 southern states for 0 electoral votes
Dukakis in 88': Won 0 southern states for 0 electoral votes
Kerry in 04': Won 0 southern states for 0 electoral votes

Totals

Southerners: 20 southern states won for 245 electoral votes
Non-Southerners: 1 southern state won for 25 electoral votes (and the lone win came four decades ago!)

Given the hard reality of facts it is not surprising Edwards' comment was immediately distorted into a racist and sexist comment in order to distract people from soberly thinking about his statement. If we went past the smallness of our politics and looked at the matter rationally we would see the data backs Edwards up. This, of course, is not something they want to do, for obvious reasons...

We also need to avoid being divided, white from black, male from female. We are all Democrats; we are all Americans; we are all human. We cannot argue that a certain skin color or a certain gender provides an electoral advantage. And we should apply this equally, not argue a case based on gender or skin color for our candidate when convenient and call others bigots for making similar arguments that show your candidate in a bad light (how many times have you seen HRC's gender or Obama's color touted as an electoral advantage by their partisans?) As someone once said: "E pluribus unum: 'Out of many, one.'...there are those who are preparing to divide us -- the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of 'anything goes.' Well, I say to them tonight...There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there’s the United States of America."