Changing course in the South

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, writes in her blog about the importance of the Institute's recent poll about Southern attitudes towards the Iraq war.

She also points out that the Institute's findings echo other polls, which show sections of the Southern electorate becoming increasingly disenchanted with leadership in Washington, and the war is a leading cause:

[The Institute] survey comes on the heels of an Associated Press-Ipsos poll that reveals a similar shift among southern women: only thirty-two percent approve of President Bush's handling of the war, compared to twenty-eight percent nationally.

It will also have an impact on the upcoming elections. As vanden Heuvel notes, "three out of five southern women plan to vote Democratic in the midterm elections."