Where Obama < Kerry

» Politico: GOP going after red-state Dems

To which, I can't help but think: they never tried this before?

"The most telling map in politics today is the map of places where Obama did worse than Kerry in 2004 -- and Tennessee and Arkansas are at its epicenter," said David Wasserman, House analyst for the Cook Political Report.

The Republican campaigns are largely fueled by the Democratic incumbent's votes on the ambitious Obama administration domestic agenda.

Interestingly, the article focuses on Arkansas Congressman Vic Snyder, Tennessee Congressman Bart Gordon, and even more surprisingly ... Missouri Congressman Ike Skelton.

Two names missing: Chet Edwards (TX17) and Dan Boren (OK02). I'm guessing the reason both are left out is because there's not a serious candidate running against them yet. Of course, I'd also point out that as far-fetched as a run against the other three candidates mentioned is, not having anything to say about the two unmentioned incumbents who reside in more GOP-friendly districts is a bit telling about the prospects of such high-profile challenges. To be sure, there are weaker Dem incumbents in red districts. But no mention of that here.

Below is the map showing Obama percentages against Kerry, with the red areas being those counties where Obama lost ground from Kerry's showing. Notice that one county where Obama gained ground was in Texas' Brazos County. Nice of the state GOP to include that little gift for Chet Edwards, wasn't it?

I doubt it's a coincidence that the map has some overlap with the Google map of where "Obama Muslim" searches were run most heavily on Google.

Just to highlight some more bad reporting, I can't help but notice this part of the article ...

In part, demographic changes in the outer suburbs of Southern metropolitan areas are driving GOP optimism about these seats. Gordon's middle Tennessee district is one of the fastest-growing regions of the country, with young families moving into more affordable suburbs south of Nashville.

Many of those voters are socially conservative and cringe at the prospect of higher taxes, said Rutherford County Republican Party Chairman Lou Ann Zelenik, who is planning to challenge Gordon by focusing on the national Democratic agenda.

I'm curious how "voters are socially conservative" equates with "demographic changes." Were they less white before? We don't know that from reading this article. Does the writer confuse growing population with "demographics"? We don't know that either.

As a reference for the future, I'll note this bit of advise from Wikipedia's entry on demographics: "It is important to distinguish between demographics and psychographics." Word to the wise.