[mnehring]

There is a marketing concept roughly referred to as 'pop culture hot zones', these are areas where you see concentrations of new cultural trends. They are often defined by populations living in close proximity (think NYC) or a high number of universities (Boston). In these areas, you see a need to be part of the group dynamic more than you would in 'flyover' country where individualism trends seem to prevail. This particular election map seems to be the best I've seen at displaying this trend.

Basically, in these areas, people conform to a norm in order to 'fit in'... this is why you see political campaigns focus not only a large portion of their campaigns in these hot zones, but also the type of campaigns- such as "Vote or Die" or "rEVOLution"- they are used to cause people to emotionally become connected to the group dynamic and not want to stray.

This really is one of the keys the Republican party has failed at in its marketing, but its also tough as one of the underlying core principles of our party is to promote rugged individualism, not following like sheep.

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

That’s a sweet map.

If you don’t mind, how did you come up with that?

I found the website, but couldn’t get any further than that.

http://www.esri.com/industries/elections/index.html