Good article by Michael Kinsley (here) on the Republicans' silly belief that they have some sort of mandate or entitlement to lead. What I'd like to see is someone point up the inherent silliness of talking about "the reds vs. the blues" and showing the map of which states went for Gore and which went for Bush. They keep talking like everyone in the blue states voted for Gore and everyone in the red went for Bush. Here's Jonah Goldberg in The National Review…
Everyone knows what RvB refers to. The electoral map of the United States shows a stark political split in America that tracks geographically. The blue parts hug the coasts and the major urban centers. This is Gore country. The red parts form the vast bulk of the United States — "fly-over country" according to people who order off-menu. This is Bush country.
Will someone point out to these people that the red states are full of Gore supporters? (Bush won Nevada 49%-46% and Tennessee 51%-48%) And the blue states are full of people who wanted Bush. (Gore won Iowa 49%-48% and Oregon by less than 1%) Gore won New Mexico by less than 400 votes and, of course, we all know about Florida. Even the landslide states contain hundreds of thousands of Americans who wanted the other guy. Why are we pretending they don't exist and that the whole state represents one mindset? Frankly, I think most of the states should be colored purple.