"I have to wonder if being a southerner is a negative this year. Maybe voters are tired of Southerners."

having two southerneres at the same time is a negative.  if Edwards had been able to assassinate Clark in NH, things would look a bit different.

Kerry's unpolitic "we can win without the South" notwithstanding, being a Southerner doesn't seem to confer much of an advantage this year. Except for Clark's brief post-announcement bounce (and Clark is not a quintessentially "Southern" candidate), the national polls have had Liebermen, then Dean, then Kerry leading. Not a ringing endorsement of the South. In fact, I think at base it's been a Kerry/Dean race with the lead switching at times. Look at the pre and post Iowa poll numbers both nationally and in post NH states. If you look at the numbers it's as if Kerry and Dean just switched names. Kerry/Dean is "generic Democrat". If you somehow combined them (and it wouldn't hurt to throw in a bit of Edwards' speaking abilities) Bush would get a spanking of Carter '80 size proportions.