A Neo-Southern Strategy

Shay over at Booker Rising says that's what will ultimately tackle Obama:

The South Carolina vote will provide momentum in this presidential race, but it will not mainly be experienced by Sen. Obama's campaign. Instead, it will be experienced mainly by Sen. Clinton's campaign, thanks to the Southern Strategy that will have reverberations throughout the country.

She's not the first to say it. I saw Buchannan making the same point the other night. Color me unconvinced. First off, Nevada and New Hampshire aren't southern states. Furthermore, Obama did very well among rural voters in Nevada, and beat Hillary among white men in South Carolina. The state's that Clinton is counting on are places like New York and California. I don't know how a "southern strategy" works to the Clinton's advantage there. The bigger problem with this thesis is that it can't be proven. If Obama looses, anyone can say it was because of  a "new Southern strategy." But how do we know it isn't simply because the voters preferred Hillary?

It's the black/brown thing all over again. Look, far be it from me to give white folks more credit than they're due. But you can't automatically conclude that racism will doom Obama--especially after his perfomance in Iowa, and his relatively strong performance among white men in South Carolina. We should be less cynical allow people the same sense of humanity and complexity that we would want.