Now if we could only make PA a red state
Not too hard a stretch:
According to CNN, Bush lost Pennsylvania to Kerry by 121,818 votes (out of more than 5.6 million cast - a razor thin margin).
Also according to CNN, Kerry received over 517,000 votes and Bush received over 124,000 votes in Philadelphia (or a ratio of 4.16 for Kerry).
Now, for the really interesting numbers. According to the recent US Census, the Population of Philadelphia that is of voting age is 1,105,066. This number includes people who by law can not vote (non-American citizens, felons, out of state college students, etc.). In 2004, there are 1,035,395 registered voters in Philadelphia, up 34,000 from 2001.
So, what does this mean?
First, even as Philadelphia looses population, the number of registered voters continues to increase year after year. Today, in Philadelphia, nearly 100% of every person of voting age must registered to vote (as compared to a national average of 60% by the Census Bureau). Second, the total lopsidedness of the 4.16 ratio is an absolutely astounding number - even heavily democratic Broward Country, FL (one of the only places Gore wanted recounted in 2000) only went for Kerry 2:1 and Cook County, IL (Chicago - THE definition of the democrat voting machine) only went for Kerry 2.5:1.
Either Philadelphia has the most engaged and civic population in the history of the World, or there is massive voter fraud.
And the amount of fraud easily exceeds the margin of loss of President Bush. For instance, if the registration was slightly above average and if Philadelphia was just your "average-democrat-rustbelt-city-union-stronghold with a 50 year democrat political machine," the vote for Kerry in Philadelphia would have been just over 300,000. The voter fraud in Philadelphia is worth about 200,000 votes - a deficit that any Republican running for statewide office must overcome with real votes.