Two Americas.

Via MeFi.

fascinating map-fu:

The results show an interesting effect. There is a large “bump” of counties centered a little above 50%, where people voted roughly half-and-half for the two candidates, although with a slight bias in favor of the Republican candidate. And then there is a big “spike” on the left of the plot, representing counties where, to an excellent approximation, no one voted Republican. It appears that there are, as the pundits have been telling us, “two Americas,” but they are not the ones people usually talk about. They are “divided America,” where people split roughly evenly between Republican and Democrat, and “decided America,” where everyone is a Democrat. The Democrats of “decided America” number about 5.9 million, or 11% of all Democratic voters. These people are unlikely ever even to encounter a Republican voter in their home town.

If one were to summarize simply, it appears that the election’s winner won by a slim majority of people in counties that — as counties — were rather ambivalent about their decision. He was opposed by a nearly (but not quite) equal number of people a considerable fraction of whom live in counties that were very certain of their support for his opponent.

Something to think about before you write off the “red states” — they were full of Kerry voters, just not enough of them.
(At least, if the election results are correct.)