There’s no small irony in the fact that despite the media’s nearly exclusive focus on the “war on terror” over the past three years, and despite the corresponding effort to cast President Bush as the steel-spined commander in chief who protects us from the WMD-welding Iraqi terrorists, some of Senator Kerry’s strongest support came in the areas most directly impacted by 9/11.
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, D.C.–the areas which suffered the most from terrorism, and which continue to be most vulnerable to another attack, all went for Kerry. Obviously, other factors play a role in this. But it is interesting that the “day that changed everything” didn’t have much of an impact on the political preferences of those nearest Ground Zero.
Oh boy, oh boy… you guys are *really* stretching for spin, aren’t you…
2000 NY (Gore margin 1,704,323)
Gore: 4.1M
Bush: 2.4M
2004 NY (Kerry margin 1,186,298)
Kerry: 4.0M
Bush: 2.8M
2000 NJ (Gore margin 504,677)
Gore: 1.8M
Bush: 1.3M
2004 NJ (Kerry margin 211,826)
Kerry: 1.8M
Bush: 1.6M
2000 PA (Gore margin 204,840)
Gore: 2.5M
Bush: 2.3M
2004 PA (Kerry margin 121,458)
Kerry: 2.9M
Bush: 2.7M
And I’m not even counting Maryland (???) or DC (which hardly matters), but I see you left out Virginia, where the Pentagon really is.
2000 VA (Bush margin 220,200)
Gore: 1.2M
Bush: 1.4M
2004 VA (Bush margin 266,206)
Kerry: 1.4M
Bush: 1.6M
In every state directly affected by the 9/11 attacks, George W. Bush won more votes than he did in 2000 and either closed the gap or, in the Virginia example, widened the gap.
Good spin, but it’s absolutely 100% worthless.
CJ, Bush’s increase in these states wasn’t substantially more than the 3% increase he experienced nation-wide relative to 2000 election.