Red Over Blue: The 2004 Elections and American Politics

As an independent who has voted for George Bush and Ralph Nader in the last 5 years, I want to commend Caeser for a thoughtful analysis of last year's elections. His conclusions are meaty and well-supported. In no uncertain terms, he explains why 2004 really was one of the most significant and extraordinary elections of the last 100 years. There are rich details, a lot of statistics, and yet the whole thing is very readable. He covers the entire gamut well, from state elections all the way to Bush's surprisingly-strong victory. Don't let the title fool you: this is not propoganda, and Caeser maintains clear neutrality and objectivity. This is no triumphal tome, and he does not read into the results anything which isn't there (he does not guarantee continued dominance by the Republicans, for example). A minor criticism: he could have said a bit more about the clear divide in geographic terms; Democrats really DO rule in just a few places which are characterized by urbanness (NYC, L.A., Chicago, etc.), secular academia (university towns), strangeness (San Francisco), and loose morals (Las Vegas, New Orleans, etc.) Virtually the entire rest of the nation is red. Here is a nice piece of work which is not afraid to put it all on the table, for the most part, and to explain why things unfolded as they did.