Looks like the "SOLID SOUTH" isn't so solid afterall

[Booberdawg]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/18/national/18SOUT.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5062&en=5a26ae0528cece3c&ex=1061784000&partner=GOOGLE

<snip>
"Something's got to give," said Ms. Mayson, a mother of three, as she left a state-run jobs center the other day. "I'm not going to vote for Bush unless things change. The economy has got to get better, and it's only going to do that if someone makes something happen."

Mr. Chastain, whose company, Mount Vernon Mills, has laid off 1,000 workers in recent years, is part of a coalition of textile executives who have formally complained to the White House about trade practices they contend are driving Americans out of jobs and manufacturers out of business, while giving huge advantages to China and other countries.

"Bush can forget about the Solid South," Mr. Chastain said. "There's no Solid South anymore."

<snip>
Mr. Chastain said problems had reached such a point that he would consider voting for a Democrat, perhaps Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, who is a persistent critic of the North American Free Trade Agreement, known as Nafta. Ms. Mayson said she would vote for anyone with a plan to create more jobs.

<snip>
"We've heard a lot from elected officials that free trade creates jobs," Mr. Dillard said. "That's absolutely true. It has created jobs in Mexico, China, Indonesia and everyplace else in the world, but not here. We're tired of it."

They are so tired of it, he said, that for the first time industry leaders are drawing a line in the cloth, insisting that if the Bush administration does not narrow the trade gap with China by the fall, company executives will withhold support for Mr. Bush or even campaign for another candidate. That was the principal message of two news conferences the officials held in Greensboro, N.C., and Spartanburg, although only Mr. Gephardt emerged as a possibility.

<snip>
Asked for a show of hands in Spartanburg to indicate how many of the executives voted for Mr. Bush in 2000, all indicated they had. Asked for a show of hands of how many would be willing to abandon him in 2004, all indicated they would.

[yeti]

1. Dubya is on crack ...

If Dems want to make some serious headway next election, just offer to undo everything W has done.

[plurality]

2. too bad the south runs solidly on Diebold voting machines

they could vote against Bush 70-30 and we'd never know. Question if the media is Republican and the voting machines are Republican, do you live in a democracy?

[tom_paine]

3. Well said, plurality

The Emperor will "sweep" the South.

Bank on it. Diebold-style.

[Julien Sorel]

4. Talk is cheap.

Asked for a show of hands in Spartanburg to indicate how many of the executives voted for Mr. Bush in 2000, all indicated they had. Asked for a show of hands of how many would be willing to abandon him in 2004, all indicated they would.

These guys would vote for Bush unless he started wearing dresses and quoting Marx. They're just blowing hot air.

[Booberdawg]

5. I don't think quoting Marx would sway the die hards

:o

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. I Read The Article Too And Was Unimpressed

And was equally unimpressed with the Poli Sci professor who suggested that S.C. could be in play.


If * is losing SC he's on his way to losing 49 other states as well.

[DarkPhenyx]

6. Gee! Ya think?

We southern voters have only been telling ya'll this for how long now? Oh, I forgot...ya'll don't need a bunch of red-neck voters. You can win w/o us. *just shakes head*

[Booberdawg]

8. Hey! We agree DP!

Wanna tussle? :evilgrin:

[Peachhead22]

9. One of the things that steams me

One of the things that steam me is, if the economy has even a good 3rd quarter of 04 most of these guys will be lining up to sing the praises of the Bush economy rather than remembering the bad 3.5 years before that. They'll be screaming from the rooftops how Bush "turned the economy around" instead of wondering if it's a temporary blip.

If he knew what he was doing, I don't think (A) there should have been a slump in the first place, and (B) it shouldn't have lasted that long.

(Of course that's if we're lucky enough that the economy turns around in spite of Bush's policies. Something I'm not at all confident of.)