Ray Mabus quoted in front page New York Times Obama article

The front page of the New York Times featured an article on Barack Obama's rising chances in the South. The story is pretty much the same one repeated multiple times on Cotton Mouth about voter registration drives, the untapped black vote, and the changing political makeup of young Southerners.

There is one interesting passage featuring our own former Governor and senior Obama advisor, Ray Mabus. I saw Ray Mabus speak at the 9:30 Blues Cafe the night of the Texas and Ohio primaries at an Obama gathering. He talked on a lot of the same themes repeated in today's New York Times.

“We’ve not only lost in Mississippi, we’ve lost by 20 points in Mississippi,” said Ray Mabus, the former governor of Mississippi and a senior adviser to Mr. Obama.

Mr. Mabus added: “It’s not only Democrats who’ve been writing off Mississippi. It’s Republicans, too, because they felt safe.”

The Obama campaign’s interest in the South, Mr. Mabus said, is already heightening the competition there. He noted that Senator John McCain had been to Mississippi since clinching the Republican nomination. “I don’t think he would have come if he thought it was a mortal lock,” Mr. Mabus said.