Barack Obama has bucked the trend of recent presidents by selecting the majority of his cabinet members from states outside the South, including Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, left, and U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., right.
(AP Photos)
With about a third of the US population, the American South has established itself as an economic and political juggernaut.
But it's not gone without notice here that President-elect Obama is the first president in a generation to look beyond Dixie to build his White House brain trust.
Is the dearth of dyed-in-the-cotton Southerners from the Obama cabinet really an out-and-out snub? Or is it simply a reflection of Mr. Obama's own social circle – his team includes seven Ivy Leaguers and four New Yorkers – and the political reality that regional rivalries no longer matter as much?
Either way, the implications could be significant for the future of the Democrats' 50-state strategy and the stature of the South on the national stage.
"It is an interesting shift," says Gary Jacobson, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego, in an e-mail. "Republican rule has had a strong Southern accent going back to the Republican takeover [of Congress] in 1994, and the defeat of that whole regime has resulted in a major regional power shift."
To be sure, the speed at which Obama named the cabinet – drawn primarily from New England, the Midwest, and the West – indicates to many observers a deliberate political strategy.
Obama made gains for his party in the South, winning in North Carolina and Virginia. But Democratic hopes may more easily be solidified in the Midwest and West, giving rise to picks like new Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano of Arizona or incoming Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack of Iowa over someone like Georgia Rep. Sanford Bishop Jr., who was eyed, but passed over, as the nation's farm boss.
What's more, despite well-qualified Southern figures like Rep. Jim Clyburn (D) of South Carolina or former South Carolina schools chief Inez Tenenbaum, the South's Democratic political farm team has been decimated by years of Republican rule in the region, argues Dan Carter, a retired political science professor in Pisgah Forest, N.C. Obama's own roots a factor
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