… For Obama, holding the Sun Belt beachheads that he established in 2008 looms as one of the most formidable challenges of 2012.
With the emergence of these Sun Belt battlegrounds, the competition for an Electoral College majority now revolves around two distinct poles: the traditional Rust Belt behemoths of the Midwest, and these new Sun Belt swing states. …
[A]cross the Sun Belt, Obama’s challenge is to mobilize the emerging 21st-century Democratic coalition of minorities, young people, and college-educated whites, especially women. [cont.]
Ron Brownstein, National Journal