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I should have added to the above, because this is relevant -- after viewing the vote breakdown by county here in the US, I realized that Houston was the largest metro area that voted for Bush. As to why that is, I think it is because of the city's sprawl and all the large outlying communities. Houston has a freeway loop (called, appropriately enough, Loop 610) not unlike the Washington beltway. Inside the loop, a different sort of political creature exists than outside the loop. Inside the loop is the older urban area of the city and this area is overwhelmingly democrat. Hey, Queen Shiela [Jackson Lee] is a permanent fixture here. But a tremendous amount of growth has occurred outside the loop in the last 30 years or so, and most of this growth has been caused by folks wanting to get away from the "big city." And these folks tend to be conservative. That's why Houston went for Bush.

I have lived in the city most of my life. San Antonio and Austin Texas. Still Voted Straight Republican. Now live outside the city limits. It's nice to be around some Conservatives.