Map of the future

Here is a county by county map of the USA, showing red and blue counties. A second map with population densities is also included.

hillbillies 1
knowledge workers 0

maps


BTW, Charlie Rose last night was quite interesting. Two editors from Newsweek were talking about their special campaign issue - for which they were given special access to both campaigns, on the condition that the issue would come out after the election.

The lead editor on the story claimed that Kerry was a terrible candidate and a terrible manager. He said on several occasions the campaign staff had to take away Kerry's cellphone because he wanted to revisit every decision and micromanage. He also was a rambling and overly complex speaker until the very end, although he was able to tighten things up for the debates, thanks to extensive coaching. The campaign hired a number of expensive professional coaches to help Kerry, but to no avail.

It was claimed that the initial campaign management was terrible - until the former Clinton people arrived in Sept. Apparently, Bob Shrum did a terrible job - something that was hinted at in the New Yorker profile of him earlier in the year. On the other side, the Bush campaign was run very crisply and effectively.

Apparently, Clinton urged Kerry from his hospital bed to *come out against gay marriage* as a way to tack to the center. I think it is very persuasive that the republicans used this issue effectively against Kerry (look at the 10 or 11 states that passed anti-gay marriage measures - even Oregon). This example just shows the gap between Clinton - a successful realist - and the rest of the democrats.

I guess I agree with Clinton. Given the current situation (see map), I do not think the left has the luxury of expending a lot of resources to defend gay marriage. So many more consequential issues (foreign policy, the deficit, healthcare reform, the supreme court) are in jeopardy that the democratic party cannot allow itself to be held hostage on unpopular fringe issues that the republicans are trying to exploit.