The Boston Globe, today: “Presidential hopeful John Edwards said Friday he will win much of the South and help the Democratic Party win more U.S. House and Senate seats in the Midwest as well if he is the 2008 nominee…

Edwards said he could upset any of the leading Republican candidates — former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Sen. John McCain — in the South.

“If I’m the nominee against any of those guys, I think there’s a terrific chance we’re going to take a bunch of Southern states…You know how this works. If the top of the ticket is strong, everything below it does better. These races in the South and Midwest are very close.”

North Carolina presidential election results 2000: Bush/Cheney 1,631,163 (56 percent) Southerner Al Gore/Lieberman 1,257,692 (43 percent).

North Carolina presidential election results 2004: Bush/Cheney 1,961,166 (56.02 percent) Kerry/Home State Southerner John Edwards 1,525,849 (43.58 percent).

If as running mate, Edwards couldn’t move the dial at all in his home state, it raises the question of how exactly he would move the dial anywhere else at the top of the ticket.