After George W. Bush won the 2000 election, despite having received substantially fewer votes nationwide than Al Gore, many of us took great comfort in this famous map, showing the election results county-by-county:
In 2004, Bush won re-election by a majority — but John Kerry nearly took it anyway because of a close call in Ohio — and we saw the reemergence of the map:
Well, here it is again, for 2008:
Because of population patterns, you’d guess that the Red team won. The actual results, which aren’t final, have Obama winning 63.5 million to McCain’s 56.1 million, or 52.4% to 46.3%.
To make Brad Delong happy, here’s the “purple” version of the map, showing it based on the relative percentage of Republicans and Democrats in each county (as opposed to the winner-take-all version, which distorts the perception):
Purple likely distorts it, too, simply because of the hue values, but it’s closer than Red-Blue in this case.
RELATED:
2008 maps courtesy Mark Newman. Earlier maps from USA Today.
