Food for Thought
This bit of election cartography presents an interesting picture. First, the country is, despite the "divided electorate" the puditocracy goes on about, overwhelmingly purple. Second, the red states are not seas of mindless republicanism, but up for grabs by reasonable candidates. Third, the only area not up for grabs wasn't the south (which kerry totally wrote off), but the big cities. While primary elections and gerrymandering have forced our leaders into warring red and blue camps, America, it seems, is divided only between blue America and up for grabs America. One more thing, only 3 counties went 99% or more Republican; 307 went 99% Democrat.