Another reader:
I think the main point here, and it is something that most journalists in the Northeast are oblivious to, is that in the rest of the county there are negative stereotypes of Northeasterners just as there are of Southerners. If a candidate from the Northeast wants to win any of the states in the South, he will have to prove that he is not just another snobby liberal who looks down on the little people as he flies over them, based on images he has from movies made 50 years ago. Dean’s comments come close to lumping almost 1/3 of the country’s population into a negative stereotype held dear by a large portion of Northeasterner’s. If it truly represents how he thinks, it might help him win Maine, but not Georgia.