“Of the twenty-eight states with the lowest per-capita income, Bush carried twenty-six. In the past, we would all have assumed that low-income states would mostly go Democratic. The fact that their income status does not seem to be tied to how they vote is a major advance for Republicans — and something Democrats have to think a lot about.”

“Kerry won all the states with the highest per-capita income. States such as New York, with high per-capita incomes, are the ones that send more tax money to Washington and get less back than the rest of the country. So the Democrats win in blue states that are essentially for bigger government but that get less back from government, while Republicans win in red states that stand for smaller government and are getting more money from the government than they send in.”– David Gergen writing in Rolling Stone Magazine On Why Bush Won