As Dr. Phil might ask Karl Rove, “How’s that workin’ out for ya?”
Here’s a nice graphic (via Sam Wang at the Princeton Election Consortium) showing just how deep a hole the Bush years have dug for the Republicans. (Rove should have it tattooed on his forehead.) On NPR the other day it was pointed out that Obama won eight of the ten most populous states, but that doesn’t really capture the magnitude. Obama won thirteen of the top fifteen, and seventeen of the top twenty-two (with Missouri still being too close to call).
It’s always dangerous to extrapolate from one election to another, but take the map below and flip Arizona (#16 in size and McCain’s home state which would have gone blue otherwise) and possibly Texas (#2 and with a rapidly growing Latino population) and the Democrats start to have the kind of “electoral lock” that the Republicans enjoyed for forty years.
Is this good for the country? Somehow I doubt it. For better or ill we have an unusual two-dominant-party political system that seems to function best when the parties are roughly competitive. Then again, after the rancor of 2000 and 2004 there’s something to be said for the peace of a landslide. I’m going to enjoy it for a bit.
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