The Red States? Who choses the colors and why.

United Press International ^ | March 22, 2002 | Peter Roff

[Fred Mertz]

Thanks D1! The assignment of red & blue by the USA Today map was carefully selected and clearly sent a more than subtle message.

Everywhere I've been, red is the enemy or the bad guy or the least favored outcome. Blue or green is good, benevolent or the desired result.

We've had these discussions when the map first appeared, but it's good to get the chance to repeat the obvious.

[drjimmy]

This is from Paul Gigot of the Wall Street Journal:
Most GOP strategists believe the Texas tyro wouldn't do nearly as well this year as his 19 percent of 1992. John Morgan, the GOP's best demographer, points out that even in 1992 Mr. Perot carried only 15 of America's 3,000 or so counties. He finished second in just two states, the non-bellwether Maine and Utah, winning no electoral votes. "There is no way Ross Perot can be elected president," Mr. Morgan says. "The only way he'd be in there is as a spoiler, and that argument wasn't made last time." Expect one Dole theme to be: A vote for Perot is a vote for Clinton. Mr. Morgan lists 11 states that George Bush lost by less than 5 percent in 1992 but that Sen. Dole has a good chance to carry, even in a three-man contest: New Hampshire, New Jersey, Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, Montana, Nevada, Colorado, Louisiana, Wisconsin and Tennessee. Add their 107 electoral votes to Mr. Bush's 168, and Hillary Rodham Clinton goes back to trading commodities.

[PDR]

first off - you need to put up the dats so that people can evaluate the data in context.. second, he never said dole would win.

[drjimmy]

As I posted the first time, the Huffington article is from April 29, 1996. The Paul Gigot article is from March 25, 1996. One article specifically cites Morgan as predicting a Dole win (and having incorrectly predicted a Bush win in 1992), the other has Morgan saying Dole has a good chance to carry 11 states that Clinton won the first time, which would give Dole the win. Can you show me any articles where Morgan predicts a Clinton win in either election?

[Stefan Stackhouse]

The tree of liberty must be watered from time to time with the bood of patriots.

Within that context, I can accept the blood-red color being associated with the Republicans. The communist appropriation of red as their color is an illegitimate theft, and I don't see any reason to abandon the color to them.

[dvwjr]

I think that it was after the 1980 Reagan victory over Carter that the Dems complained to the networks about the red=dems=communists vs the blue=repubs=patriots imagery that they felt the maps projected. The networks then switched colors, and the Republicans have been "red" and the Dems have been "blue" on the presidental maps ever since...

[Irene Adler]

"It is something I HAVE thought about. I decided a long time ago that the networks were uncomfortable with using red to denote Democrats because of the association of that color with communism and socialism. It is just a little too close to the truth, and makes them uneasy."

Yes.