George Will: The Republican Party Has Become Too Dependent on Southern States

Has the Republican Party become too southern? In reaction to a particularly cringeworthy Rick Perry soundbite from Thursday's debate, George Will told the rest of the panel on ABC's This Week with Christiane Amanpour that the party indeed has become too dependent on southern states in Presidential elections:

Following a criticism of Perry's attempt to attack Governor Romney, Will said:

“There’s also the problem that the Republican party has been, in recent years, too Southern. In the last five presidential cycles, they’ve got 79 percent of their electoral votes from the South. It’s too much. The Republican strategy for years has been to carry the 11 states of the Confederacy and Oklahoma and Kentucky, carry the eight states of Mountain West-- Arizona and New Mexico to the Canadian border, then spend a sum equal to the gross national product of Brazil to carry Ohio, and then you get to be president. That won’t work anymore partly because Barack Obama did extend the battlefield."

Considering Will's comments on the Republican Party dependence on southern electoral votes came immediately following the criticism of a Texas governor's bumbling attempt to criticize a northern Republican, do you think Will's comments were meant to have broader implications than just an assessment of electoral strategy?

(H/T: Mediate)