Hey Nimh!
Have you checked the NYC maps starting here?:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/11/05/us/politics/20081104_ELECTION_RECAP.html
Studying the voter shifts usually proves more interesting than studying the vote itself.
If you notice, map number 2 (which colors only those counties where McCain 2004 got more votes than Bush2004), besides barely "pinking" Arizona, delineates, almost exactly, a map of the Ozarks + the deepest south.
Map number 3 tells you about the democratic growth: the West was bluer almost unanimously -even in Idaho and Utah-, but most noticeably in Indiana, the Western shore of the Great Lakes ans the Southern border.
Then come the exit-polls:
The biggest shift towards the democrats came, by far, from the Hispanics.
Hispanics are the main demographic group responsible, also, of the Obama wins in New Mexico and Florida (and Colorado and Nevada, may I add). The so-called McCubans were less than the Cubobamas.
Then come the other key states, where the white vote shift was important. It's real interesting to notice than in some states (Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina) the Obama shift was mainly among the urban voters, but was across the board in Virginia.
In any case, it proves that the 50-State strategy was correct.
