Cartograms of the Obama Victory: What "Normal" Maps Don't Show

JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 355

I woke up this morning feeling good for the first time in my life about the results of a presidential election here in the United States.  In my living memory, the characterizations of the occupiers of the big chair in the Oval Office have been less than fulfilling:  the ruined greatness of LBJ, the actual and interrupted possibility of evil of Richard Nixon, the tight-lipped raisin-eyed confusion of the deceptive Jerry Ford, the bittersweet and limited Jimmy Carter, the addled incompetence and intellectual insolence of master storyteller RWR, the bookmarked-thin-never-finished-book of Old School George Bush, the Falstaffian and could've-been-great-but-spoiled Bill Clinton (killed in the end by viciousness and republican lust), the unutterable and poisonous George Bush redux.  The people sent up to run against them have been less than illustrious in many cases:  Hubert Humphrey, Walt Mondale, John Kerry, Al Gore (though with Mr. Gore, known as "Al God" to the other kids at  National Cathedral , would've been  a better choice for the chair than George Bush; but then again, a warm stain would have been better too, so faint a praise is that...there is little doubt though that we'd have several trillion dollars more in the economy and wouldn't have affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of American military families or "disrupted" the lives of millions of Iraqis.) But late last night, when Iowa went to Obama, I felt the possibility of pride and probability of accomplishment creeping into even my cynical soul-shadow.  I also have little doubt that a man of this calibre surrounded by a forceful whirlwind of readiness will also be able to attract excellent minds to the administration--something I think that was sorely lacking (for the greatest part) in the last administrations. I know absolutely that everyone else in the world was ready for Obama; I'm glad that the United States followed suit. 

And how big a win was this?  How many people supported the Obama ticket? 

A simple map showing results of voting by state doesn't tell that much of the story:

Looks very red to me. 

However, when you use an electoral college cartogram (a map with a thematic variable, where the area of the map is representing something other than simple geography and a place on the globe) to display the same results the visual representation of the same data changes dramatically, we you can see (and this image can be clicked for a more detailed view):

(The following image is from the interesting and clearly written website of Mark Newman, Department of Physics and Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan.  He also has published a "real world" atlas of cartograms that more vigorously display quantitative information--outside of an atlas of imaginary places, this is exactly the sort of book that should be present in every classroom in the United States. ) The population cartogram from Newman's website offers another interesting aspect of the election results, depicting a solid but relatively thin control of much of the South (inexplicably and stupidly referred to over and over again by the pundits on CNN as "the Confederacy" (!?)), along with a stubborn reed of red that extends from the northern to southern border and which pretty much follows the cattle trail of the Hat Creek Outfit from the Great American Novel Lonesome Dove (by Larry McMurtry, which is also to a lesser degree the path of the Goodnight-Loving Trail.                                                                                                      

The net result, I think, is that the Obama victory was decisive, and has a huge tailwind, a mountain of support.  It seems that there is very little doubt that the people of this country were ready for something very different than what has been here for eight long years.

Comments

[Jeff]

OK, OK. You convinced me. I ordered a couple of copies of "The Atlas of the Real World" for the library. It had better be good ...

[Rick]

Loved your thumbnail descriptions of our recent bad actors, John.

Like many in the audience in Grant Park were doing last night, my lovely wife was in tears for the entire time Obama was talking last night. I fully understand--my own reaction was to sit and grin, grin grin.

You hit upon what it strikes me will be the critical, tipping-point influence with this new administration: Obama is a smart man, so smart he knows the amazingly compounding value to the country and the world to surround himself with the best he can find.

I'm betting he is going to have lots of the best willing to give up some years from their private pursuits and serve in an Obama administration.

[John Ptak]

I agree, Rick, the Obama speech was moving, and I think too that there is a particular quality absent from many administrations that could make someone want to work for the government at the pleasure of potus.