Cities v. Suburbs

The six biggest cities in the country, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, had John Kerry winning over George Bush by approximately 3.8 million votes. (For New York that's the sum of Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. For San Francisco, it's S.F., Alameda and San Mateo Counties by my reckoning.) My half-assed estimate is that these cities account for approximately 10-12% of the electorate, or about 12-14 million votes. So John Kerry won them easily, probably somewhere up around 65-70% in total, with many of the cities going much higher.

But that also means that George Bush won the remaining 88-90% of the country by 7-8 million votes, a resounding victory that could be as high as 10%). I think one way of conceptualizing this election is as a repudiation of urban elites and their culture, including the dependent underclasses they have created in our major cities. This is the revenge of "Fly Over Country."