You have to skip through quite a lot of garbage about racism and the South to get to the meat of this Guardian post*, but it’s kind of worth it:
What needs to be pointed out, however, is that most of Obama’s current approval slide likely isn’t because of racism.
[snip]
The greatest fall for Obama isn’t among whites in the south; it’s in the northeast – you know that region that was on the correct side of the Civil War. Obama went from winning northern whites by 10pt in the election to a -12 net approval now. The next greatest drop is in the west where Obama fought to a near-tie in the election, but now has a net approval of nearly -20 among white voters. Close is his 14pt drop in the midwest where Obama’s net approval is now a measly -23pt.
The one place where Obama’s support among whites hasn’t fallen sharply is in the south. Obama’s net approval there is only a statistically insignificant 3pt lower than it was before the election. In other words, it’s likely he completely bottomed out in that region. Lack of white support for Obama hasn’t bottomed out in other regions.
Continue reading Guardian forced to concede racism not behind Barack Obama’s cratering support.