Ignore the South if you want, but the Democratic Party can unite people across the country and win back Southern states if we play our cards right--and the ace up our sleeve remains Wesley Clark. Check out this news clip of him stumping in Tennessee.
The clip (top middle screencap), of his "True Grits" Tour (see the subject line for what we Clark supporters have nicknamed it). As someone who's mostly watched his news clips and NH town halls (also available on the us4clark page), that's the first time I've really heard Clark speak with that much of a drawl, and I think it's a nice (if subtle) surprise. I think this will go much further in the South than beginning to talk about Jesus. Not to rank on Dean ("suuuuuure" some of you are thinking :), but I think openly announcing his plan to do that was unnecessary.
Items I've been considering today:
In that clip, Clark was shown staying on message: This election is about "a new, higher standard of leadership."
Clark drew enormous crowds in Knoxville, TN--a very conservative town. There was a large number of Indies and Repubs in the crowd.
TN's primary is Feb. 6th.
Btw, Joe Trippi's announced his strategy for winning the 2004 general election, and it included focusing on LA and CO--I'm not sure what Kos means by saying Dean doesn't want to win the South.
James Carville, a Lousisianan and political stategist responsible for the last Democratic win (is that the right term?), has doubts about Dean's electability.
Clark's home state went to Arkansas, which went to Bill Clinton twice and George Bush in 2000.
Arkansas is worth six electoral votes.
There's more, but I just wanted to spit some of this out.