Second Verse, Same as the First: The 2012 Presidential Election in the South

by Scott E. Buchanan (Editor), Branwell D Kapeluck (Editor)

Second Verse, Same as the First is a volume of essays covering the 2012 election as it played out in the eleven former states of the Confederacy. The essays are organized by state and emphasize the presidential campaign, but each state chapter also includes analysis on notable congressional races and important patterns at the state level. Interesting patterns in the South and their implications for the balance of power between the two major parties are analyzed. Additional chapters cover the issues that dominated voter decision making and the nomination process. Second Verse, Same as the First is a necessity for academics, journalists, and political enthusiasts seeking a deeper understanding of contemporary changes in southern electoral politics.

350 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Scott Eugene Buchanan is Assistant Professor of Political Science at The Citadel and the Director of The Citadel Symposium on Southern Politics.

Reviews

[Julian Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting as a time capsule of experts' views on the electoral landscape in each Southern state shortly after the 2012 election: Georgia is correctly forecasted as increasingly competitive in future cycles, while the author of the Florida chapter makes the ultimately-incorrect argument that the state would become increasingly Democratic in coming elections. The prose is generally workmanlike; facts are presented and predictions made.

Two statements from the chapter on Mississippi stand out as extremely uninformed and beneath the author as a scholar: the author applauds Mississippi Democrats' "biracial coalition", when earlier in the chapter it's mentioned that an absurdly low 10% of Mississippi whites backed Obama, and the author makes the fallacious assumption that Obama underperformed the number of registered Democrats in the state due to an inability to turn out progressive voters, when the phenomenon of lagging partisan registration statistics is well understood in Southern politics.