A New Political Geography: Which States will Go Which Way?

News Type: Event — Seeded on Sun Jun 29, 2008 9:22 PM EDT

Article Source: The Washington Post

politics, obama, mccain, election-2008, virginia, swing-states, science-of-voting

When Sen. Barack Obama chose the Nissan Pavilion in the outer suburbs of Northern Virginia to kick off his general-election campaign, one of the 10,000 supporters there was David Bruzas, who recently moved to the fastest-growing part of a state that is moving rapidly away from its Republican past.

"Being in this area has made me a lot more politically in tune with what's going on," said Bruzas, 27, a systems engineer from Illinois who moved to Fairfax County to work for Cisco Systems in 2005. "And I identify with Obama."

Published to:

David Lamb's Column, All of Newsvine
Groups: America's Need For Change, Centervine, Logic on the Vine, ObamaVine, Open Mic, Open Minded, RantVine, The Truth Network, US News and Views , Worldviews
Regions: Washington DC

What's this?

Who's leading the conversation?

This visualization below allows you to see the impact that each user has on the current conversation. The top row contains the group of users who have had the most impact, the 2nd row the group of users who have had the 2nd most impact (et cetera). Users with similar impact are grouped together, and the average score of the group is shown to the left of the group. The author of the article is also shown on the left, in their corresponding group. Each user's score is based on the number of comments the user has made plus the number of votes their comments have received. The scores are calculated relative one another, so while their absolute value is not particularly important, their relative difference does indicate a larger difference in impact on the conversation.

1.3

{"commentId":2081660,"authorDomain":"DavidLamb"}

David Lamb

The trend generally bodes well for Democrats. Major metro areas are growing faster than the country as a whole, the party's strength with young voters promises a lasting edge, and well-off, highly educated urban voters are valuable campaign contributors in the Internet age.

Yes, there has traditionally been a correlation between urban areas and strength in the Democratic party, but the urbanization of America over the past hundred years has in no way led to an increase in Democratic presidents. Is there a flaw in this article's logic? I'm not yet sure.

{"commentId":2081660,"threadId":"302195","contentId":"1624101","authorDomain":"DavidLamb"}

#1 - Sun Jun 29, 2008 9:26 PM EDT

{"commentId":2081726,"authorDomain":"mightyblogger"}

Pacific Northwest Blogger

I can read this article a different way. The young educated are becoming prosperous, moving away from their small towns, stepping up to their civic responsibility and voting. Sounds like a promising future. For those young educated, those small towns represent republican living, they left and moved to urban areas and away from small town attitudes. (I can personally speak to this, having lived in a town of 1005 total population)

{"commentId":2081726,"threadId":"302195","contentId":"1624101","authorDomain":"mightyblogger"}

1 vote

#2 - Sun Jun 29, 2008 9:37 PM EDT

{"commentId":2081831,"authorDomain":"DavidLamb"}

David Lamb

Urban renewal has definitely been a countrywide trend, and the influx of young professionals moving to downtown areas may not be a bad thing. The "shift" the article talks about reminds me of the shift that occurred during the 1930s-1950s, where the urban north and west started favoring Democrats after nearly a century of Republican leadership, and the south started to favor Republicans. Still, it's ironic that those (at least in the article) prospering under Bush are voting for "change" with Obama, while the rural-dwellers who are struggling under Bush's leadership are looking to another Republican. I guess, people aren't very rational, and they are damn stubborn.

{"commentId":2081831,"threadId":"302195","contentId":"1624101","authorDomain":"DavidLamb"}

#2.1 - Sun Jun 29, 2008 9:58 PM EDT

{"canLink":false,"threadId":"302195","isPrivate":false}

DAVID LAMB

Backyard

A New Political Geography: Which States will Go Which Way?

Published to:

FUN STUFF:

COMPANY STUFF:

LEGAL STUFF: