Harvey Wasserman is right about a lot of things in his Jan 22 column but he's wrong on forgetting the south in the presidential campaign. Only by working hard in the south and making a real contest out of it, will the democratic nominee get a national message across that will reverberate through the big electoral vote states. The nominee may not carry any southern states, but by showing that the south is part of the union from the nominee's point of view, he'll generate a huge local effort all across the south, elect democrats in close local and congressional races, cause Bush to have to spend time and resources in the south, but above all that he'll portray to the nation (and to the thousands of black and white voters in old dixie) that they count, they're important. And redneck pickup truck driving farmers (I'm one) will begin to see that voting Democratic is what they want to do.

 ivan swift -- madison county, alabama