The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

From Robert Novak's column:

A footnote: Supporters of Rep. Richard Gephardt's abandoned presidential campaign have started pushing the former House Democratic leader for vice president. A Kerry-Gephardt ticket would pursue a non-Southern strategy, with Gephardt counted on to bring in his own state of Missouri and also help in industrial states.

A successful Kerry-Gephardt ticket would certainly would be a black eye for, to use a phrase of Novak's, the "patriotic and conservative White South". I am not sure if this would have any real political significance, but it would be satisfying to see the self-importance of the South take a hit. Zell Miller and the rest have long been lecturing the Democrats on the need to win the South and that if they feel to sufficiently pander to the South, they can write off the election. That alone makes a Kerry-Gephardt paternership attractive.