BARACK OBAMA WON BUT THE COUNTRY STILL MOSTLY RED

Barack Obama may be the President Elect of The United States but as seen in the map above the country is still decidedly very red. Red of course are those areas where the majority voted Republican and as such that particular county went red.

In fact as the numbers have been analyzed if it were not for one group of voters this election most likely would have gone the other way. Many pundits thought the Independent vote would be the deciding factor, but that was not the case as both Obama and McCain received 48% . Others thought that the women's vote would be the decider in favor of Obama but he only garnered 6 % more than McCain which is actually a little below average for a Democrat candidate.

The real deciding factor in this election was the below thirty age bracket. This year that age group comprised 18 % of the vote well above the average of past election years and Barack Obama received more than 60% of that vote which gave him the numbers to beat McCain in many of the usually red swing states like Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina.

Polling that is being released today by Zogby shows that although the under thirty age group was the catalyst that put Obama over the top on November fourth, they were largely a very uninformed group of voters. Almost 60% could not identify which party was in control of the Congress with 48% of that 60% saying it was the Republicans because Bush was a Republican.

Nearly 60% could not state one issue that Obama had on his agenda but quickly cited only ,"change," Obama being young, or they liked how he looked as the reason they were voting for Obama. Many also cited being a part of history in electing the first African -American President.

The results shows that the Obama get out the youth vote campaign was very successful and it was the group whose vote elected him to The White House. But the map above in showing that the majority of America is still red in its political make up should leave a very telling sign for the President Elect and how he governs. A centrist Executive Branch will be more in matching the make up of the country.

But will that happen ? With Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid having greater majorities in both the House and the Senate and their well known very liberal agenda and the equally as liberal campaign agenda of Barack Obama, governing from the middle may be the last thing that an Obama administration will do in the first months and even years of his Presidency.

Ken Taylor