Deep Purple

Facing South points out that Obama did relatively well in the Republican-encumbered South:

2008 SOUTH-WIDE VOTE TOTAL*

John McCain - 21,047,740 - 53%
Barack Obama - 18,604,726 - 47%

Obama won at least 40% of the vote in every Southern state except Alabama and Arkansas, where in each case he won 39%.

Remember those numbers the next time you hear a pundit or blogger call the South a "Republican" region. Like the rest of the country, it is a region divided.

And notably, for 18.6 million Southerners, it was a time to elect the first African-American to the White House.

* The Institute includes the following state in its definition of the South: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.