geomantic

To put the magnitude of Obama’s victory in perspective, here are links to two interesting maps of election results. Both of these resources provide a much better explanation of the outcome than do the state-level maps, which look pretty evenly divided. The county-level maps are overwhelmingly red, but when adjusted for population the margin of victory is abundantly clear.

First, the Washington Post shows the election results in 3D here:

Map: Presidential Election Winners by County | Election 2008 | washingtonpost.com

Second, be sure to see the cartograms produced by Mark Newman at University of Michigan. If you just look at the results at the state level you would miss the real story, which occurs at the county level. And, you would miss the impact of highly populated urban areas versus the vast, thinly populated areas of the country.