Weird that the US Election Atlas site reverses the traditonal "red for GOP" and "blue for Dem" colors. That threw me at first.

A piece on Kerry's decision to concede by John McArthur, Publisher of Harper's...

New Mexico went from 1.1% loss to .8%, we'll easily take it back four years from now.

Iowa from .9% to .7%, better, but we still need to break the Republican takeover of the river states from Clinton's presidency.

Ohio from 2.5% to 2.1%, coming from Gore's 3.6% loss, and our defending of the other Great Lake states (Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania) I'd say we nearly have this region under control.  Declining union membership is a problem, though.

Virginia from 8.7% to 8.2%.  Gore only lost it by 8%, but we improved by taking the largest county (Fairfax) from Bush, (by a 6% margin).  Given the rapid DC area growth in Virginia, I see the state becoming a true tossup some years from now, regardless of whether we run a Southernor or not.  Not even Clinton could take Virginia, but times are changing.

2.5M more Catholics voted for Bush and that is about the margin of difference between Bush and Kerry.  Gore won the Catholic vote in 2000.

How can we win back the Catholic voter?  Do Dems have anything similar to this?  Director of Catholic Outreach?

Actually when I started hearing the priest during sermons and end of the masses telling us to vote pro-life,  I then felt Kerry would lose.

And to think the Pope was vehemently anti-Bush!

---Original Message Follows----
From: "Martin Gillespie, Director of Catholic Outreach, RNC" <gopteamleader@gopteamleader.com>
To:
Subject: Thank You and Congratulations!
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 16:36:49 -0500 (EST)
Dear ,
With the post-election number-crunching completed, we as Catholics can be proud that the Catholic vote went to President Bush by a margin of 52%-47%! The President was the right candidate for Catholics, and the election results reflect that.
We now know that President Bush decidedly improved his standing among Catholic voters since his 2000 election, when he lost the Catholic vote to former Vice President Al Gore, 47%-50%. This eight-point net gain represents more than 2.5 million new Catholic votes for President Bush. Over thirty-two million Catholics voted in this election, and almost seventeen million of those Catholics voted for President Bush.
Other notable facts about the election include:
·Among Catholics who attend mass weekly, the President won 56%-43%;
·The first time since 1988 that a Republican presidential candidate has won the Catholic vote;
·This election marked the first time that a Catholic major party candidate for President has lost the Catholic vote;
·The President outperformed his national average with Catholics in key battleground states, winning the Catholic vote in critical states such as Ohio (55%- 44%) and Florida (57%-42%).
We will continue to make clear that the Republican Party is a natural choice for Catholics. In this respect, please expect to hear from us in the months ahead with our continued plans to build Catholic support for the President and his initiatives.
Again, thank you for participating in this successful campaign.  You made a difference!
With respect and appreciation,
Martin Gillespie
Director of Catholic Outreach
Republican National Committee
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item in NY Times, 12/8/04

I'd like to see more recounts in the Presidential vote . . .
"Where did that mandate go, anyway?"

So we can now say he lost only by 2%, if we want to indulge a calculated, but correct, sloppiness.

And what's CERTAINLY false is that Kerry lost by 3%, though I have little doubt but that our media morons will continue saying this. Yet there's no way at all of rounding 2.48% to 3%.