(Disclaimer: This is a reprint of a post on my blog, which I wouldn't do, except that this information is really interesting and it pertains to quite a few prominent posts here on the myth that America is now GOP country.)
Many of us will have seen the pictures of "red America", such as this one in USA Today. Tedious hacks like Michelle Malkin have been trying to tell us this means everyone supports Bush. She's wrong however, because the maps ignore the fact that most of the red counties have very few people in them, while many of the blue counties have lots.
Three scientists from the University of Michigan have come up with maps of red and blue America in which counties are drawn with size proportional to their population, so that counties with many people appear larger than those with few. This gives a much better idea of Bush's support.
More below the fold...
There's still a bit more red than blue, but they have an answer for that, too -- if you color the map in shades of purple, like the map we
posted earlier, then red America becomes a miserable speck in the great plains.
Full disclosure: Two of the authors of this work are friends of mine.
UPDATE...Links changed to mirror site on Cosma Shalizi's website because Mark Newman's site seems to be down.