The Case for North Carolina: A Devil's Advocate Obamargument

[Stranger in a strange land]

A question for Southerners:  Is a black man from Chicago substantially different from a New England liberal in terms of stigma? 

electorally, New England Liberal is probably worse. Both are about equally off-putting to white evangelicals (though the New England liberal is probably MORE off-putting if he comes from the only state in the union that allows gay marriage), but a black politician will rally the black vote in a way that a white New England Liberal can't.