The Economist asks whether the GOP is becoming a regional party of the South (or, OK, makes the argument that it is becoming that):

The problem for the Republicans is that a regional stronghold can become a prison. The South has one of the most distinctive cultures in the United States—far more jingoistic than the rest of the country and far more religious. Fifty-eight per cent of deep southerners identify themselves as either evangelical or born-again compared with a third of non-southerners (the figure in Mississippi is 73%). But for every non-southerner who waxes lyrical about southern charm there are many more who associate the South with racial bigotry and cultural backwardness. The 2006 election—which saw social conservatives such as Rick Santorum and Kenneth Blackwell go down to humiliating defeat—suggests that non-southerners have grown particularly impatient with the South’s brand of in-your-face religiosity.

The magazine also argues, as I have, that Mitt Romney, despite being from Massachusetts, is the “southern” candidate in the GOP field coming into 2008.

(Also, isn’t their graphic great?)