3. Anti-death penalty in most issues. Death penalty should be very rare if not nonexistent.

I knew 20% of us (and about 35% of the dems) felt this way, but had not been able to find them till I came to this forum.  Kudos to Dave Liep for giving the unorthodox American types a forum of hope.  Don't hold your breath for a major change of attitude about this in your lifetime, though.

4. Pro-affirmative action until I get into Berkeley... then I'll be against it... muahaha

I'll assume you know that this program specifically works against you, in general, whether intentional or not.

Dennis Kucinich 25.83%

24 hours per day of unyielding daylight for six months, followed by six months of darkness, will do strange things to your voting habits.

right, swede?

Gustaf, the non-sequitur posts are really my favorite ones, at least in this forum.  It emphasizes the futility of every word anyone ever types.  (As though any of us really think we can accurate predict state-by-state winners or tell which cities will be important in 20 years, etc.)  Don't you think the occassional lesson in humility is a wonderful thing.

You have listened to one too many Howard Dean speeches.

good point.  I just looked it up and Hartsfield airport is the busiest in the nation.  But most of that's connecting traffic.  Miami is too likely to be blown away by rain and wind, New Orleans is an HIV-infested dungpit where 20 bucks will get you a pretty good time, and Houston is a place where you're more likely to be shot than robbed.

I'd guess Dallas for the center of commerce for the SxSW region in the long run.  Its growth rate is phenomenal, there are no mountains or oceans nearby to inhibit its sprawl.  It is very white-collar friendly and pro-business.  Probably as much or more so than Atlanta.  And it doesn't have all the historical baggage of Atlanta.  (well, there was that famous bullet which killed two people.  grassy knoll anyone?  LOL)  Basically, it was a shack on the trinity river in 1830.  Now its a futuristically magnificient Oz of glass and steel.  No BS.  I was living in north Arlington when the famous landmark Cotton Exchange was destroyed to make room for a big glass high-rise.  Lots of protests, but none with the bigs bucks to stop the developers.  My kinda republicans.

6,355,664,023 according to the US official estimate.

but who's counting?  

I think the carolinas, louisiana, texas, and florida will also be exceptions to your coastal rule.  And Alaska, of course.  Your SW exception is based, I assume, on the assumption of continued exploitation of minorities by the Democrats.  I don't think that will last, but its just a guess.

Gotta love the 1968 democrats for taking a bad system and making it worse.  This is called progress, by the way.  No more smoke-filled rooms with concerned, intelligent people picking candidates for us.  No way.  Let the great unwashed uninformed masses pick 'em.  Go McGovern!  Go Jerry Ford!

Been looking for a place to post this, but can't find one.  Since this is about as irrelevant a thread as I can imagine, I'll put it here:

So this guy gets on an airplane and takes his seat.  He notices the Popemobile outside and wonders if that's the Pope's popemobile.  Sure enough, after a few minutes His Holiness boards and takes the seat right next to the guy.  Not much of a talker, the pope.

After about an hour of silence, during which time the pope is doing a crossword puzzle, the pope looks over at the guy and asks if he knows a four-letter word for woman that ends in 'unt'.

The guy thinks, "surely it can't be, and anyway I don't want to offend the Holy Father," so he says, "I'm sorry I can't think of any."  So the pope continues with his puzzle.

After several minutes the pope starts exclaiming in Greek, "Eureka!"  ("I just thought of it!")  "It's aunt.  A-U-N-T.  That one was tricky."

The pope then looks over at the guy and asks, "can I borrow your eraser?"

Given those choices:  NEW MEXICO.

Beet, to take this in the direction I erroneously thought you were going with the original post, you may enjoy reading

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/columns/kurtzhoward/

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaagh!

And it has been repeatedly shown that these social issues do inform voting proclivities, by and large.

(oh, but maybe that's your point.)  

Nick,
I was not speaking about Schwarzennegger.  I do not regard him as particluarly liberal or conservative, but rather in the middle by California standards.  In any case, I certainly didn't vote for him (though I may next time.)  I moved here about three years ago, and as everyone knows I'm a serious archconservative.  So there's at least one more Bush vote in CA than last time.  No, one data point does not make a trend.  But consider all the unemployed twenty-something codewriting geeks laid off in '00 and'01.  Most will move Back East to live with mommy and daddy till their emotional maturity catches up with their educational maturity.  They will take their Albert Gore pseudoliberalism with them.  Thus the trend.  

Just for the record and in case no one has pointed it ou CA is trending conservitive...

This has been repeatedly pointed out.  But thanks.

 Supersoulty that's a good point.  Sixty years ago NY had twice as many electoral votes as CA, now CA has nearly twice as many as NY.  And American Airlines, worlds largest carrier, moved from Chicago, IL to Fort Worth, TX in the late 90s.  But it's more of a Westward, or Southwesterly trend, I think.  Maybe that's nitpicking.  It brings up the point about how the Kerry people like to suggest they don't need any states in "The South" because Republicans racked up victories without winning any of those states for almost a hundred years!  But back in those days that region had only about 20% of the total, whereas now it may be more like 30 to 35% of the total, depending on what you count.

I am curious as to why you keep suggesting Atlanta though.  At first, I thought it was an obvious reference to Futurama (New New York, the lost city of Atlanta, etc.)  But now I going to go out on a limb and assume you're serious.  Why Atlanta, Georgia?

"That giant sucking sound you'll hear will be the sound of jobs moving to Mexico."  H. Ross Perot

I guess you don't get to be a multi-billionaire by being a dummy.  Maybe this is a case where pragmatism trumps philosophical principle.  You're right about white-collar guys feeling the sting.  Tough going for lots of folks in my little part of Northern CA.  I still say selling our country off bit-by-bit to East Asians is a bigger problem.

Joker!  But you should be aware that four of the last four governors of the Bay State have been Republicans.  And Bush's daddy was a Republican from Milton, Mass too.  And in the five years I lived in Boston, my entire office was filled with serious loyal GOP Clinton-bashers.

Strange, I'm the only Republican on this thread who is still active.  Where have all the Republicans gone?

Sea of Blue, my friend.  

Cube30, I have found the answer to that question before in here:
http://www.thegreenpapers.com/

but you may have to dig around a bit.

3. I'm somewhat skeptical of trade agreements like Nafta.

Care to elaborate?

Two easiest targets since Carter vs. Ford.  Jay Leno's gonna make a killing this year!

"...he only has $4.6 million. "  And that's counting the $4.5 million dollar estate!  I voted yes because John Kerry has an uncanny ability to change goals at will.  Whatever he gets, that was his goal.  Turn that frown upside down.  

Vorlon,

Your map looks OK except New Mexico should be in Blue.

And the granite state as well.  This is like RISK!

opebo, now I understand you so much better  

You too Agcat.  Blackjack is fun, but a harsh mistress.

Do we assume that's Jesus, as in Bienvenidos al foro Jesus.  Christ is Democrat.  Confucius is Republican.  No consensus on Mohammed.  Remember?  Or maybe we reached that conclusion before you arrived.  It's all just a blur now.  

Great map.  I think that Texas and Florida will gain 3, California will lose 1, Ill, PA and NY will all lose 2.  Texas will remain solidly Republican.  PA will treand more republican because the New Deals will be dead and gone and young entrepenurial(sp) types will take their place and I will be governor of North Carolina which will still trend Republican.  

And Paul Bremer will have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.  

Thank you angus, at the pantheon I expect free drinks and a title of nobility!

Let's not get carried away.  You're just a God, not a Republican.

I put MA (percent-wise) because I thought in his particular case home-state advantage will work well for him, looking at the 2002 reelection results for Kerry.  In absolutes, I agree that New York will win out.

CommunicationsWeek
11-18-1996
Speaking at an environmental rally on Oct. 19, 1996, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry found himself looking out over a much larger crowd of supporters than anyone had expected. Kerry, a Democrat, took note of this, and pressed on in his successful campaign to get re-elected to the U.S. Senate. The news media also took note, and decided that the level of support at the rally demonstrated clearly that the senator had not been weakened by a series of articles appearing in the Boston Globe that had questioned his ethics-articles which had been picked up and used repeatedly in the campaign by his Republican opponent, Gov. William Weld.

Egads!  I was there!  Talk about misspent early adulthood.  Also, William Weld soon thereafter took a job in the Clinton Administration.   Weird.
Massachusetts Republican=Arkansas Democrat anyone?

I think for right now, the Pacific Coast belongs to the Dems.  Oregon is not leaning GOP at all.  

Faulty analysis.  Very little of Oregon is on the Pacific Coast.  But the conclusion is serendipitously correct, unfortunately.