Dems actually made big gains in "swing states"

[Nym90]

Good point. Bush's gains were mostly because he ran up larger margins in the states that he won, and reduced Kerry's margins in the states that he lost. In the swing states, not much changed either way, and thus they are now more Democratic relative to the national average.

As a result, whereas in the last election, the EC had about a 0.5% bias towards the GOP (as evidenced by the fact that Gore won the popular vote by about 0.5%, but lost Florida, the state that he needed to win, by 0.01%) but this time, it was about a 0.5% bias towards the Dems, since Kerry lost nationally by 3% but only lost Ohio, the crucial state for victory, by 2.5%.

So the EC, at least this time, favored Democrats, unlike last time when it favored Republicans. In 1996 it favored the Dems as well by this standard, but favored the GOP in 1992. So it really seems to swing back and forth and not permanently favor one party.