Wonkette
The new interactive maps are here! The new interactive maps are here! These things are 10 million x worse than cocaine, these things are. Click a state, find your county, find other counties, compare to ‘04 and ‘00, laugh, repeat, don’t get any work done, the end. [NYT President Map]
The real shocking revelation from that map is that Oklahoma is redder than Utah!! WTF!!! I thought all of those inter-married, multi-wifed mormons were supposed to be bred to vote Repub!!!
Accordingly, I expect the new GOP platform to be focused largely on giving Land the right to vote.
Sooo many counties are indistinguishable squares! Damn you, Federal Land Ordinance of 1785!
The next shock? Look down the East Coast into Alabama. Evidently, the piedmont creates liberals.
The shift is the most instructive part: there’s this hillbilly belt that goes across from the Texas panhandle to the White Trash Mountains of Virginny.
Is Texas going to expel those counties on the lower southwest and tip of the state? They clearly are not Amurricans. Might even be Muslins.
azw88: They’ve gone rogue?
Oh God, and I thought the Politico one was addictive.
Wow. That’s messy.
Now I can found where all the illegals hideout.
Well at least Staten Island (the one NYC borough that is still pulling for Giuliani ‘08) got up to 47% for the Dems. For the first time in my adult life I am slightly less ashamed of my county.
These are fantastic. It looks like almost every urban area, even in the reddest of red states, went Democratic. The only exceptions I could find were Oklahoma “City” and Salt Lake “City”
There’s something about living with and near other people that tends to make you a liberal, I guess. The people-hating demographic is still solidly Republican.
Still no blue corridor from Maine to California. Still not safe to drive across the country.
Thank you Ken, you’ve helped me plan my next vacation!
oh hey, they called North Carolina at least. First time since 1976 it’s voted for a Democrat
I am staying the hell away from Oklahoma.
Lorax:
Yesterday, my boyfriend’s wingnut colleagues were whining about Alaska’s small share of electoral votes on the grounds that it’s such a biiiig state. (The scary thing is, they work in IT, so you’d *think* they would possess the basic reasoning skills to get the whole population-trumps-acreage thing…)
I wonder how many voters are still undecided.
jagorev: Check out Mississippi — it’s the reverse of that. All the cities (such as they are) except for Jackson are red. The blue part is all out in the country, mostly to the west.
azw88: OK panhandle went 90%+ for WALNUTS!. There’s not all that many people there, but c’mon…
Yay Copiah County, Mississippi and the rest of the Delta! - Good to see that while we’re still poor, we aren’t as dumb as the rest of bumblefuck America.
Ooooh, the ‘Voting Shifts’ button was my favorite!
Poor Walnuts. Not a single county in NH has a speck of red. Not even the funny-shaped ones with more cows than people.
F that. I want to know how my neighbors voted. That’d be porn. Armature porn.
azw88: It’s not really surprising. The only strong blue area is Park City, which isn’t like the rest of Utah at all. The surprising thing to me is that people in Park City even bother to vote.
I can’t believe how much of Mississippi is blue.
jagorev: Salt Lake County was almost dead even, pretty shocking for Mormon Country!
Joey Ratz: If we ever resume above ground ‘new-kle-ar’ testing, we should use Oklahoma. We’ll show them the TRUE meaning of DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW!
I’m wondering if that solo blue one in North Texas is Dallas County. That would be weird; Harris County is light blue, and, of course, Travis County, home of the People’s Republic of Austin, is so blue it’s nearly indigo.
Doglessliberal: At least I know which cities I can move to within Texas.
I like how Alaska is one county.
Doglessliberal: That area will secede and become the People’s Republic Of Dobbs.
The “County Bubbles” tab makes it look like the United States has a case of shingles. Hmmm…
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/flash/politics/20081104_ELECTION_RECAP/electionChange2.swf
shortsshortsshorts: You know what NYTimes map of Oklahoma I want to live in?
The one where you click Oklahoma, then click “Voting Shifts” and Tulsa County turns blue. Yep, that’s my map. Seriously though, Obama got more votes in Oklahoma than he did in New Mexico, Nevada, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Maine or Hawaii [all blue] … it’s the electoral college system that makes my vote worthless.
Maybe the GOP should re-brand itself as the Appalachia Party.
That solo blue one in North Texas IS Dallas County, norbizness. It makes me so happy to see us standing out like a beacon in the sea of red.
norbizness: Meanwhile, Throckmorton County, Texas (4 east and 1 north of Fort Worth) has seen its Other vote collapse - from 5 (five) Other votes in ‘04 just 1 (one) Other vote in ‘08. It’s the home of America’s loneliest Paultard, I suppose.
I feel kind of sad. Poor poor lonely Paultard. *sniffle*
The county Palin called the “Real America” is blue!!!! (Guilford County, NC)
regisgoat: Yes, the red shading indicates its a rash.
That blue stripe through the south, isn’t that coterminus with Sherman’s March? Talk about hard campaigning!
picardia: That’s what happens when black folks vote.
StupidGeek: Yeah the voting shifts is very pretty almost all over the country.
I also like that Dubya’ll be moving to Dallas, where 57.5% of his fellow county citizens voted for Obama.
Lorax, MameDennis: Large open areas are already over-represented in Congress by the fact that Alaska and Wyoming, for instance, because they get a minimum of one house seat and two senate seats, whereas California also gets two senators, and its house districts are of roughly equal population.
What is it about living by yourself that makes people vote Republican? Maybe the delusion that, because you can’t see any from your porch, poverty and racism aren’t really problems. But we need more highways, goldurnit!
The Bitter Belt is getting smaller, but not fast enough. Again, can we not close their military bases and cut off Federal highway funds? The spoils system is still in effect, isn’t it?
pedro: Armature porn? Is that like when you can see their commutators and brushes?
WTF happened to Arkansas 2008 vs 2004? I assume they (all of whom will soon have the same last name) are putting stupid pills in the water down there.
Terry:
problemwithcaring:
SayItWithWookies:
I’m guessing that’s the “Black Belt” you’re seeing. There’s a noticeable line of counties across the south (generally the inland piedmont land) that have most of the region’s rural black population.
V572625694: Remember the scary Halloween lady who gave no candy to kids? She is the Republican base. Republicanism is a form of sociopathy, a kind of mental illness.
wheelie: Let the record show that’s 4 west, not 4 east. This shit is hugely important to that one guy.
picardia: Unprecedented GOTV…I have never seen some of the older folks so riled up about any candidate. Copiah County went blue for the first time in my life. I wish dear old dad was alive to see his “Mayberry RFD” vote for the black guy.
ph7: Appalachia is perhaps the greatest concentration of rural white bitters, hence the electoral shift to Republicans from 2004 there. North Texas, North Florida, and Oklahoma is also bitters country, thus the shift there. The bitters hypothesis (with a sprinkling of racism) seems to be the most plausible explanation for this…
Obamaton: I can’t wait till Hopey sends his Civilian Service Corps (ie, several thousand hipsters and gays and elites) to recreate Sherman’s March, except this time we’ll be giving out love and hugs and happy endings instead of shooting their menfolk and raping their women.
Lorax: one acre, one vote
wow
look at Oklahoma….pure red….not a single negro in the entire state! How’d they pull that off?!
The “vote shift” map looks just like the CDC maps for Oxycontin addiction and syphillis!!
Botswana Meat Commission FC: Yes, but black people in Copiah County usually never turnout to vote. This is ground zero for some of the most heinous voter suppression tactics still in modern use. I flew back home and did some GOTV stuff, so to see it turn blue…sniff sniff….yea. Feels damn good.
jagorev: Judah Friedlander’s March?
jagorev: That’s kinda like what Michael Savage says about Libruls! But there really once was a Republican Party that was pro-choice, in favor of small government, and wanted to avoid imperialist military adventures abroad. You could at least have a rational discussion with people like that.
What happened to those guys?
jagorev: Right, so lets take not only a population map, but a map of all the major cultural centers, museums, and universities and overlay them. You’ll find PROOF republicans are uneducated hillbillies.
Wow, Hopey’s only behind by 6,000 votes in Missouri. If it were like Illinois, you could get that done with a coupla phone calls.
204 votes short of living the full Blue Life. I wish less of Upstate NY was mentally retarded like this guy: http://www.mpnnow.com/towns/bristol/x1197772803/A-racist-display-or-a-clever-statement
What this map tells us is that most republicants live in areas where livestock outnumber human beings. This accounts for their tendency to think like a horse’s ass, spew bullshit like there is no tomorrow and run like headless chickens when things don’t go their way. Instead of an elephant, they should consider a turkey as a logo.
Adorable blue spot in the gay movie star part of Idaho.
arkadie7: “Salt of the earth. You know, morons.”
See that tiny little speck of dark blue in Tennessee? No, not the one in the corner, that’s Memphis. The other one in the middle of the state is ME. Nashville Tennessee of all places almost 60-40 for Hopey and our minority population is pretty small. Yee-haw, y’all.
Wikipedia claims that Dick Cheney is a resident of Teton County. Teton is one of two counties in Wyoming to vote for Obama. He may just own a condo at the ski resort but still….HaHa
norbizness: It is, in fact, Dallas county (maybe Tarrant too). We just reelected our Hispanic lesbian Sheriff here! It’s getting bluer by the day.
blader: How’d they pull that off?!
It took a lot of rope.
jesus christ, why did you have to post this! i cant stop clicking and clicking and clicking on every frickin county. your such a junkie pusher!
Dallas County was primed for blue conversion because of the presence of Revolutionary Redneck Black Panther Ron Kirk. BTW, it also looks like Bexar county (San Antonio) was light blue, meaning that we’re talking rural Texas must have gone about 102 percent to -2 percent for McCain for the overall margin in Texas to be +11 McCain. Fucking useless motherfuckers. Move to Oklahoma, you’ll be happier there.
Is it just me or do the red parts look like a rash?
V572625694: I’ve often wondered whether that huge swath of red from North Dakota to Texas would stay so red if there were an interstate highway running down the middle of it. That chronic sclerosis may just be due to poor circulation.
There is: I-35.
What a handy map to have to distinguish which Deliverance-type counties I should avoid when traveling!
Terry: I live in Charlottesville, VA at the Northern end of the mysterious blue stripe through Dixie… I know why Charlottesville is blue (UVA and affiliated professionals) but I had no idea there was a thin little trail of us marching into Louisiana. Seriously, what is that all about? Do truck stops along I-85 distribute liberal propaganda?
regisgoat: FST reference FTW!
Botswana Meat Commission FC: Ah-HA… sorry I didn’t see your post. I know you are right because Wikipedia says so:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Belt_(U.S._region)
Tennessee:
2004: 18 blue counties
2008: 6 blue counties
And if you think that difference doesn’t have anything to do with race, you haven’t spent enough time in my state.
Oklahoma. LOL
picardia:
That blue part of Mississippi along the western border is the area known as the Mississippi Delta for the most part. Famous for getting flooded out fairly regularly by the Mississippi River, for great music, and a whole bunch of rather poor African-Americans. Good cooking, too.
Botswana Meat Commission FC:
It’s also the fall line, the furtherest inland point that many of the rivers are navigable (in many cases this means there are falls or rapids in the rivers there, like Great Falls outside of DC). A lot of good sized cities and towns are located along that line because that’s the furthest inland in colonial times you could put your port town.
Check out Maverick County, Texas, which went for Obama 78.2% to 21.2%.
OK, only like 11,000 Texassians voted there, but still, Yee Haw.
Hells YEAH! Look how decidedly (and uncommonly consistently) BLUE Wisconsin is!
I have to take back everything I’ve always said about those northern cheese heads.
The RED Halo around Milwaukee County is its rural exurburbs, where indignant whites run to because they don’t want to be cosmopolitan (have to look at black people) or pay Milwaukee’s property taxes and where, just coincidentally, Juan McCain visited tons of times, before finally giving up on the state. In that halo, Barack went as low as 36% and 37%[!]
* * *
But these 2 color maps aren’t very informational. It would be more useful to add PURPLE to the mix unless RED or BLUE had a lead of 10% or more. Were that the case, I think most of the country would be PURPLE instead of RED, but so would Wisconsin. Most of our BLUE is only by a few percent.
Cambria County, Penna, home of lots of my relatives and many former coal mines, went for Obama! Yay, Hunkies!
The only completely red state of Oklahoma has gotta be one frightening place for the black loving liberal
problemwithcaring: Good ole Copiah County! It’s other claim to fame this election is being the home county of the man who unseated Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Jim Smith, of Borat fame. Now former Justice Smith will have more time to go to Pentecostal revivals. Hooray for Dixie!
norbizness: Conceded. But I-35 is pretty far east of the red, at least the northern half of it. And the southern part runs through some of your bluer counties in Texas, right? I was thinking more along the lines of supposing that, like, U.S. 83 were made into a fat interstate, with truckstops and hookers and buttsecks rest areas and Canadians, you know, all those things that bring civilization with them.
Hey guys, sorry about my state, I’m from Norman and I can’t believe my county is red! OU is here, including the child loving liberal Mr. Boren! My neighborhood is covered in Obama signs, but the towns in the area make us red.
Of course, as you may know, “Oklahoma” is cherokee or some indian language for “Red Man’s Land” Guess that’s pretty accurate! Don’t hate us all though, we still have gayz, Mexicans, and blacks, I mean look at our college football team…
shortsshortsshorts: Yep. There are only two things to do in Oklahoma. Stay the hell away or get the hell out. (Them there Baptists could kicks the Mormons’ assess all day every day.)
azw88: As a non-Mo Utahnn, I can tell you that there are other reasons to live here than the proximity to the mothership temple. Think skiing, hiking, biking, fishing. While the Mo’s do vote red, there are lots of heathens in Salt Lake County, Summit County (Park City), and Canyon County (Moab) — all areas Hopey won.
On the other hand, there are no reasons to live in Oklahoma other than the cousin marrying, bible thumping, and oil drilling.
Winsome: Cheney owns a house in the Jackson area. The locals there burn his effigy when he visits.
House of Yes: yes I am unfortunate enough to live in Oklahoma and we are very proud that we are the most ass-backwards state in the country. Our state legislature went to a GOP majority too. And the ironic thing is, we have more registered democrats than republicans in the state.
ghardcastle: As a former Okie and current Iowan who actually got to caucus for Hopey all those months ago, I would add another schizophrenic fact about Oklahoma, they’ve only ever voted for three Republican governors. Wtf?
For all of you non-Oklahomans out there, perhaps these tidbits can elucidate why Oklahoma is the only all-red state in the country: (1) 3.2 beer (plus no liquor after 9 p.m. or on Sundays); (2) churches on every corner that loudly proclaim they are “open ’til Jesus comes”; (3) inbreeding; (4) oil fumes; and (5) places with names like (I shit you not) “Jesus is Lord Daylight Donuts” and Triple K Marina
Ah, the Pink Piscatiquis County of Blue Blue Maine. Why am I not surprised? I worked at a school up there. It was like being in the rural Dangerous Minds. Instead of troubled minority teens it was hopelessly hick teens whose parents, if they hadn’t sloughed them off to their grandparents while they went to jail for meth addiction, thought high school was a waste of time and everyone went “hayin’” for their summer job (picking up the hay left over from the hay-bale making machine — I’m sorry I know that; I truly am). Gott in Himmel.
Looking at the beautiful blue blob that is Wisconsin reminds me of this hilarious article that was in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel yesterday, with this Republican clinging stubbornly to “Wisconsin is a swing state!” even though we are rapidly reverting to our (literally!) Socialist roots.
We’re going to make Tommy Thompson get gay-married to an aborted cow fetus.
Illinois looks awesome too…of course Barry O. is from there but the fact that he swept the collar counties of Lake, Will, Kane, and Dupage made me so happy. I’m used to seeing just a little blue dot for Cook.