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That's EXACTLY right. It's the % of the population that worries me. More African-Americans are returning to southern states, now that it's largely safe for them to return (safe from KKK nuts and the like, albeit not particularly safe in neighborhoods with high crime perpetrated not by White racists, but by their own people). It really isn't THAT difficult for the 'Rats to elect their own people, since all they have to do is peel off an additional 10-20% of the White vote (the ones who voted for Hodges in '98) and watch as the GOP edge disappears (which could happen in an economic downturn). But turn that around and how easy is it for us to peel off that many more Black voters ? It's VERY hard.

A prime example of this is that people forget that in the early '70s we had White Republican Congressmen representing Downtown Atlanta (now held by 'Rat John Lewis, who is Black), urban DeKalb County (formerly held by Cynthia McKinney), and Downtown Memphis (held by the Ford Family) in VERY polarized districts. Embarrassingly for us in districts that had between 40-50% African-Americans at that time, the White Republicans chose to ignore, rather than embrace and reach out to them, and predictably, by 1974, all 3 seats went 'Rat when the latter were able to pick up a bit more White voters and have never gone back. Anyone ever heard of Sen. Fletcher Thompson of GA ? Nope. You see, Thompson was the last GOP Congressman from Atlanta and as Michael Barone pointed out in 1972, all he needed was a decent increase in his % of the Black vote and he would've defeated a fella named Sam Nunn for the GA Senate seat and become the first Republican Senator since Reconstruction (Thompson is still alive today, and might've still been the Senator there instead of the current Saxby Chambliss). 30 more years we had to wait because that outreach went unheaded. So the next time someone says it isn't THAT important to reach out in Southern states, just point to the example of Mr. Thompson. It's just that important.