Boy are the Republicans laughing at this little dust-up! Howard Dean invokes the Confederate Flag and gets the other dems all riled up with charges of insensitivity and Southern stereotyping. Of course the response by Dean's opponents is a big part of the reason why the dems have lost so much support in the South and the Midwest. There is a large group of dems who are so sensitive (i.e. PC) about terminology that they alienate themselves and many of the good ideals they represent from mainstream America.
This case in particular is a win-win for Republicans because they can argue that the dems are either belittling the new South or that the dems are being "PC" again. By turning this into an issue Sharpton and Edwards have caused the whole democratic party to lose. Of course, Dean deserves his share of the blame for not finding a better way of saying he wants to reach out to the South.
A quick story - I'm listening to NPR and a black hostess is recounting a Jimmy Kimmel interview with "50 Cent" the rapper. 50 Cent has been shot 9 times and had 2 songs on the Charts at the time. So Kimmel says "You want to get these songs out while you're still alive I see". Prett funny really, I mean the guys been shot 9 times and Kimmel is a comedian. But not to the NPR hostess who found the joke to be an attack on the blacks in this country - that's why the joke is on her, NPR, and my fellow libs who have lost a sense of reality.