The South certainly doesn't have a monopoly on racism, but it is particularly venomous there. From The Guardian 1/4/10:

The US secret service is investigating an apparent effigy of Barack Obama hung from a storefront in Georgia. Local television news showed what appeared to be a black doll at the end of a noose on the main road in Plains, home of Jimmy Carter, the former Democratic president, Georgia governor and Nobel peace prize winner.

Witnesses said the doll bore a sign with Obama's name. The effigy was quickly removed by the fire department after it was discovered on Saturday.

This is sadly familiar. It isn't that uncommon for racists in the South to leave nooses hanging from trees to try to intimidate African Americans. One of those African Americans was Barack Obama before he was President.

In October 2008 two students in Kentucky hung an effigy of Obama in what they called a Halloween prank. They were arrested, but charges were later dropped.

Hanging politicians in effigy is nothing new, nor is it limited to any one region or country. But, there is a qualitative difference when the politician is not white and the location is the South. It's not just because of that region's racist past, but it also is because of the South's racist present.

If you look at substantive policy, you would think that rightists would be tremendously relieved by the Obama Administration. He has offered continuity over change at almost every turn. The only possible explanation for the rabid, unthinking hatred of President Obama by the right in this country is racism.