As you look at this picture,

[shawnj]

imagine the Appalachian Mountains and the Arkansas Delta.

Comments

[madshrubbery]

Ouch, shame on you Harlan County and your sisters! Hard to tell, but I think the lil' Pike bastard didn't go as red. Amazing.

[crwilley]

That one county in Colorado really sticks out. It's Saguache County, population 7031. Were they especially blue last time, or is there something weird going on there?

[pkthunder]

I'm guessing something weird, considering these results:
http://data.denverpost.com/election/results/county/saguache/

[crwilley]

Huh. That has Obama getting 62.4% of the vote - and I found the 2004 results; Kerry got 56.9%. That should have made Saguache County light-medium blue on the map.

But I definitely pegged the right county - there isn't anything else that shape. Error in the source data, I guess.

[bernmarx]

I disagree that the PUMAs did anything at all. Most of the most visible PUMAs were GOP operatives in the first place.

If Arkansas stood out as much as Arizona did*, or if there were more patches in New York, I'd agree, but that really just looks like a map of where the worst racism is in this country (other than AZ and AK), not counterbalanced by large black populations (AL, e.g.).

* Arkansas is all red, yes, but it blends in with all of its neighbors.

[crwilley]

I'd hazard a guess that for a lot of people, PUMA was code for (or cover for) "I'm not voting for a [n-word]."

One exit poll I saw said that 84% of Clinton supporters ended up voting for Obama, and only 12% for McCain.

[shawnj]

Yep, that's kind of the code I was going for.

[force_of_will]

I've just been wondering about the long mindset of Indiana and was particularly interested in them election night. That turn was telling I thought and when they came in for Obama I figured it really was in the bag.

[shawnj]

The turn Indiana took is pretty remarkable. Partially, I think it has to do with the friendly relationships Obama has with the Congressional delegation.