When The Whole Map Was In Play

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Rasmussen Reports:

 

When The Whole Map Was In Play

 

A Commentary By Rhodes Cook

Friday, October 05, 2012

 

Throughout this year’s presidential campaign, the competitive portion of the electoral map has been limited to about 12 or 13 states. There are the nine that flipped from Republican George W. Bush in 2004 to Democrat Barack Obama in 2008, plus four or so others -- Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin come quickly to mind -- that voted Democratic the last two presidential elections but narrowly so in 2004.

That has left the remaining three-fourths of the country as essentially bystanders to this year’s That has left the remaining three-fourths of the country as essentially bystanders to this year’s presidential action. It is a number that includes the huge electoral vote prizes of California (55) and New York (29), which for the past 20 years have voted solidly Democratic, as well as the growing electoral powerhouse of Texas (38), which for even longer has been the cornerstone of the Republican presidential coalition.

This constricted electoral map makes sense in light of our sharply divided nation -- with the two coasts strongly Democratic and much of the interior outside the battleground states of the Midwest just as avidly Republican. But it is well to remember that it has not always been this way.

A half century or so ago, the map was quite fluid, with