Originally Posted by ubertuber

Perhaps we need to concede that America is not the country that we have thought it is. The real story isn't in the state electoral maps - it is in the county electoral maps. This country IS sharply divided between the parties, and it has to do with whether one lives in a rural area or an urban one even more than which coast one lives on, how rich or poor one is, or even whether one is a midwesterner northeasterner or southerner. It may be time to admit that this country is less urban than we think, and that there is more political power in the extra urban areas than we have assumed. The party that understands this and knows what to make of the suburban and exurban demographic shift is the one that will be effective in 2008.