I still can not believe how well Obama did, just look at Texas

[usregimechange]

Obama goes from a 2004 Kerry loss in TX of 23% to a loss of 11%.

Obama carried Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and of course Austin and the Latino rich south TX.

Amazing progress!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

1. Obama, and the rapidly increasing Hispanic demographic in TX, will

shift the state blue, it's a question of how many election cycles.

Right now it's the only megastate that the GOP can claim.

If TX even becomes a battleground, the GOP will truly become a regional party only unless they can figure out how to appeal to other people than right wing males in the South, Southwest and Plains/Desert.

Completely ceding both costs (not counting SC and GA, which is now a battleground anyway), AND all the major metropolitan areas that even reside within their own base states, is the dumbest thing ever. This is where all the population growth and economic resources for votes and donations are.

[Erin Elizabeth]

3. Awesome post! Exactly!

And you and I will both see that happen. Those 34 EVs of Texas will end up going to the Dem side in a few more cycles. Maybe less.

[fujiyama]

20. Texas will likely have 36+ more electoral votes from the next election

due to population shifts.

[Erin Elizabeth]

2. Yep, I knew McCain would take Texas, but by a SMALLER margin

than Bush did. It gets smaller every time and Republicans who understand trends are shitting in their pants right now.

[rainbow4321]

9. I think it was Cornyn who said after his win that he wanted the margin in his race

to not get close enough where the (national) DNC would feel a need to put their money into the race to help Noriega.. in another words, he meant: "maybe the DNC will continue to IGNORE TX". I imagine as long as that holds true, TX repukes will be happy/just fine.

[skooooo]

4. Here's a graphic..

I hear your shout out for Texas, but I'm amazed at how much Obama beat Kerry's vote in Indiana. Look at the concentration of orangy-red in Indiana.

[MadBadger]

5. While I agree with what you are saying, you also have to remember that Bush was on the ticket in 04

[Awsi Dooger]

24. Exactly, it was actually a weak performance by Obama in Texas

Let's not kid ourselves. The partisan index barely moved from 2004 to 2008. In 2004, Bush won 61.1% to 38.2% in a national environment with Bush winning nationally by 2.46%. That meant the partisan index was +20.4% red.

This year McCain won Texas by roughly 11.8%, 55.4% to 43.6%, in a national vote that is currently 6.03% in favor of Obama. So the partisan index in Texas is currently +18.0% red.

A drop from 20.4% to 18.0% is less than the impact of a favorite son. A president atop the ticket is always worth many points in the home state, even for Gore in 2000. A generic Democratic candidate would have been blasted in Tennessee.

In other words, Obama performed worse than Kerry in Texas, when the related factors are considered. You can't blindly accept net margin A and net margin B without applying the logical modifiers.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

6. Obama, and the rapidly increasing Hispanic demographic in TX, will

shift the state blue, it's a question of how many election cycles.

Right now it's the only megastate that the GOP can claim.

If TX even becomes a battleground, the GOP will truly become a regional party only unless they can figure out how to appeal to other people than right wing males in the South, Southwest and Plains/Desert.

Completely ceding both costs (not counting SC and GA, which is now a battleground anyway), AND all the major metropolitan areas that even reside within their own base states, is the dumbest thing ever. This is where all the population growth and economic resources for votes and donations are.

[yellowcanine]

7. Texas and Arizona will be in the Obama column in 2012. You heard it here first.

[Hamlette]

8. what is really astonishing is Indiana. bush beat kerry by 21%

60 to 39.

Even Utah, the reddest state in 2004 (71 to 26) is up to 63 to 34 this time. Not great up an 8 point improvement is better than the country as a whole.

Now, if we could just figure out Appalachia.

[MagickMuffin]

10. Although McCain "won" Tarrant County :=(

We increased our voter turnout. In 04 the rethuglicons won by 25% in 08 only 12%

We worked really hard here for Obama, long before the Tarrant County Democratic Party we had Tarrant Obama and our grassroots organization was phenomenal:applause:

We are planning on keeping our group/network going to get more voters registered and become more involved.

NY Times actually made Tarrant County blue.

http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html

[rainbow4321]

15. Voter turnout got Democratic vote totals to 2 ½ times what they were in 2000

Here's something that will make you feel good about all the TX voter registration drives and GOTV drives:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/110708dnmetburbvote.36c4bc9.html

But the lopsided results conceal what experts say was a major Democratic shift in suburbs both red and blue – even in bedrock conservative areas such as Allen, Denton and Plano.

In Collin and Denton counties, President-elect Barack Obama received 70,000 more votes than Sen. John Kerry did in 2004. Sen. John McCain, by contrast, collected 19,000 more votes than George W. Bush.

The numbers propelled some local races to their closest margins in years and Democratic vote totals to 2 ½ times what they were in 2000. Republicans also set voting records, though their gains were not as dramatic.

(snip)

"There were huge Democratic gains in suburban Texas, but they barely register because Texas is so Republican," said Robert Lang, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech and a leading expert on suburban politics. But, Dr. Lang added, "throw Collin County into the St. Louis suburbs and, all of a sudden, Missouri would be solidly blue and not red."

[TriMetFan]

11. Being a native Texan and now an Oregonian

it makes me wonder, since Obama won all the major cities in Texas and the Latino vote, was Texas stolen? My dad who lives in San Antonio and has work all his adult life to get out the vote, thinks it was.

[TheDebbieDee]

12. I wonder about Texas being stolen, too!

Perhaps a lot of the repukes that stole the Gubernatorial Elections from Ann Richards in 94 or 96 are STILL counting the votes in the Texas counties that they run.

[TriMetFan]

17. I won't doubt that.

[rainbow4321]

23. Could be...

Do it in a state that in the public's mind is going to be "red anyway" in the national election so who will think twice when it "stays" red in the end.

[TriMetFan]

27. Well of course that would be the way to do it.

But I think this should be looked into. I mean since Obama won all the major cities and he also won the Latino vote and he still lost, this make me go hmmmmm.

[ashling]

13. Obame got more votes from Texas than from

all of New England.

[cloudythescribbler]

14. The area along the Rio Grande, on maps, showed some of the biggest "blue shift" in the US ...

By "blue shift" I mean the shift in voter tallies in a Democratic direction from 2004 to 2008. It is NOT to be confused with the "red shift" in the 2004 election between reported exit polls in a given area and the reported vote in those same areas in the same election!

I btw have never visited any of these areas, and wonder whether or not demographic changes will turn TX into a blue state over the next 10-20 years.

[Arugula Latte]

16. Arkansas and Tennesse are regressing, not progressing.

Oh, well. Can't get 'em all, I guess.

[mtnsnake]

18. To see how much Obama improved in almost every state, check this out:

Just put your cursor on whatever state you're wondering about:

http://www.electoral-vote.com/

[FrenchieCat]

21. Wow! Obama outperformed Kerry and Gore in every single state

other than Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee! And where he outperformed, he really outperformed!

Incredible! :wow:

[SemiCharmedQuark]

19. You can partially thank Lou Dobbs for that. My relatives in S. Texas

some of whom could identify with Bush saw the Republican party of 2008 as virulently anti-Hispanic.

[TxBlue]

22. DNC needs to work on OKlahoma....Northern Suburb of Texas

Alot of people, relatives, friends on both sides of Red River. Working on Oklahoma would drift south and vice versa.

[Skittles]

25. it's why I'm hoping Dems start campaining here

no more writing off Texas

[Juche]

26. Texas will be a swing state by 2016

The growing latino population and the growing youth population there is pushing it leftward. Texas could go the way of Colorado, going from a GOP state to a swing state. When that happens, the GOP has 0 safe big states left in presidential elections.