North still had the highest swings.
That it did but there aren't many blacks in NOVA (relative to the Richmond area and southeast of the state)
The majority of counties and cities Obama carried are white majority and in some its clear that he won a majority of the white vote; yet others seem racially polarised
Obama carried the following:
Northeast Virginia Alexandria: 72% (+5) [59.1% white]
Arlington: 72% (+4) [65.3% white]
Fairfax: 60% (+6) [60.1% white]
Fairfax City: 58% (+7) [64.3% white]
Falls Church 70% (+5) [77.3% white]
Loudon: 54% (+10) [67.9% white]Manassas: 55% (+12) [54.2% white]Manassas Park: 60% (+15) [49.7% white]Prince William: 58% (+11) [52.3% white] Southeast Chesapeake: 51% [63.5% white]Frankin City: 64% (+10) [54.5% black]
Hampton: 69% (+11) [47.4% black]
Newport News: 64% (+12) [48.3% white]
Norfolk: 71% (+9) [45.9% white]
Northampton: 58% (+8) [54.2% white]
Portsmouth: 70% (+9) [52.8% black]
Suffolk: 54% (+6) [54.2% white]Surry: 61% (+6) [49.5% white]
Williamsburg: 64% (+13) [77.2% white]
Central Virginia Albemarle: 59% (+8) [80.9% white]
Brunswick: 63% (+4) [56.0% black]
Buckingham: 50% (+4) [60.4% white]Caroline: 56% (+7) [65.1% white]Charles City: 69% (+6) [46.4% black]
Charlottesville: 79% (+7) [68.6% white]
Danville: 59% (+9) [50.9% white]
Emporia: 65% (+9) [57.5% black]
Essex: 55% (+9) [57.1% white]Greenville: 64% (+5) [59.4% black]
Henrico: 56% (+10) [62.7% white]Hopewell: 56% (+11) [56.0% white]King and Queen: 52% (+6) [64.5% white]Nelson: 54% (+4) [81.9% white]
Petersburg: 89% (+8) [77.8% black]
Prince Edward: 54% (+4) [61.4% white]
Richmond City: 79% (+9) [55.0% black]
Westmoreland: 55% (+6) [64.7% white] Shenandoah Covington: 56% (+4) [81.4% white]
Fredericksburg: 64% (+10) [68.5% white]
Harrisonburg: 58% (+15) [74.7% white]Lexington: 62% (+5) [84.2% white]
Martinsville: 64% (+10) [53.0% white]
Montgomery: 52% (+7) [87.8% white]Radford: 54% (+8) [85.7% white]Roanoke City: 61% (+9) [67.6% white]
Staunton: 51% (+12) [84.2% white]Sussex: 62% (+6) [60.5% black]
Winchester: 52% (+9) [74.4% white] Red denotes counties/cities which switched from Republican to Democrat
Obama clearly made impressive gains among whites in Virginia, but whether liberal whites are moving in I don't know. That said, self-styled liberals accounted for 21% of the Virginia electorate, up from 17% in 2004
I'm wondering if many of those small Shenandoah cities are college towns, which might explain his surge in several of them because many rural counties in this region saw swings to McCain
Dave
