Columbia is also sort of becoming part of the Portland metro, in the weird way that satellite areas grow because of the metro, but few people commute. That having been said, I was mildly amazed that Obama did as well in Columbia as he did.
Columbia is weird, in that it seem socially conservative but not especially a culture warrior zone. Measure 58 (which banned non-English teaching) failed by about 10 points this year but barely passed Columbia. Still obviously an over-performance, but there are limits to the county's conservatism. It's Bush-league
I agree with Lewis.