Hillary was polling +15 against Mccain in Arkansas and arkansas voted plenty of dems in even in 2010. Arkansas had plenty of white registered dems at the time.
Why doesn't atlas want to admit that blackity black black scared a lot of white, conservative dems into votijg Mccain when polls clearly showed them voting for Hillary (even before the lehman brothers crash).
Because that would admit that there were racist Democrats, supporting a clearly liberal party, in 2008 ... and our current narrative is that all racists joined the GOP in 1964. 
Also, Arkansas doesn't have partisan registration, so it's harder to track such shifts than in, say, West Virginia or Oklahoma.
I don't disagree that there were plenty of racists back then (and still some now).
The southern realignment went on from 1964-2012.
Poll
