The Solid South?

Survey USA has just released a new 50-state poll on President Bush's approval ratings. Not everyone is a fan of their polling techniques, but it's a useful snapshot, being one of the only polls with a state-by-state breakdown. And the results from the South are very interesting.

So how is Bush faring in the GOP's "Solid South" -- the 13 states he won in 2004? Here are the numbers (states with a net negative approval rating for Bush are in italics):

ALABAMA
Approve 52%
Disapprove 45%

ARKANSAS
Approve 40%
Disapprove 56%

FLORIDA
Approve 44%
Disapprove 53%

GEORGIA
Approve 47%
Disapprove 51%

KENTUCKY
Approve 42%
Disapprove 53%

LOUISIANA
Approve 48%
Disapprove 48%

MISSISSIPPI
Approve 49%
Disapprove 47%

NORTH CAROLINA
Approve 47%
Disapprove 47%

SOUTH CAROLINA
Approve 45%
Disapprove 51%

TENNESSEE
Approve 43%
Disapprove 52%

TEXAS
Approve 54%
Disapprove 43%

VIRGINIA
Approve 42%
Disapprove 52%

WEST VIRGINIA
Approve 45%
Disapprove 51%

The upshot: out of 13 Southern states, Bush has fairly large net negative ratings in eight, and two are split down the middle. Only two Southern states have a net-postive approval rating that's outside the poll's margin of error -- Bush's home state of Texas, and Deep South Alabama.

How does this compare to the rest of the country? Interestingly, out of the 10 states nationally with the highest approval ratings for Bush, only three are in the South. All the rest are from the West and Great Plains (in order of pro-Bush approval): Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska, North Dakota, Montana, and Oklahoma.

It's just one poll from one polling company. But maybe the GOP's lock on the South isn't so "solid" after all.