Thomas Schaller says North Carolina is not yet really blue.
The author of "Whistling Past Dixie" tells Dome that he thinks Barack Obama's impressive ground game and the "atmospherics" of this election had more to do with his win here, a state he had urged the Democrat to ignore.
"It may stay for Obama again next cycle, but I don't think it's tipped permanently," he said. "Almost every advantage was for the Democrats, and it was still a very close win. If I were a North Carolina Democrat, I wouldn't rejoice too soon."
Schaller said Obama could win the "New South" — an area he defined as influenced by high-tech jobs in places such as the Research Triangle Park and high rates of non-native Southerners moving here. He said Obama's coalition was Northern transplants and black voters.
"This wasn't a Nascar victory," he said. "It was a decidedly New South victory."
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Re: Whistling past North Carolina, part III
Schaller apparently thinks the late Jesse Helms represents the "real" North Carolina. His explanation of the Obama victory is as simplistic as his advice to Obama not to contest the race. I am a white South Carolinian with family roots here dating back to the early 1700s and I wish my home state could look beyond fear and hate as NC and Virginia did in this election. The ideal would be for all states to be like Ohio, Florida and other swing states which always get extensive attention from both political parties.