For all Obama's decisive margin in electoral votes (364 to 162, with 12 still in process), and the fact that more people voted for him than for any other presidential candidate in U. S. history, we are still basically a50-50 country. There are "red" and "blue" voters all over, something this
map, the only map most people are seeing, conceals (but the president-elect knows!). Purple America is concealed in most of the Times' maps, even this very helpful one showing the size of victories in 
various districts. But it does show how important the Republican-rural/Democratic-urban correlation is... As for this one - wish-fulfilment for Democrats! - it shows the swing towards blue compared to 2004.
But, important as these different and trends are, we remain a purple country - something Barack Obama was one of the first to remind us of. Blue triumphalism would make the change we need harder, if not impossible.In the end, Obama won 52% of the popular vote (the same percentage which, in the case of California's regrettable Proposition 8, seems way too meagre to be a mandate). Can the other 48% be reached so that the talk of unity becomes a walk of unity? I'm a bit skeptical, I have to admit, but I have to admit also that if anyone can do it, it might be the millions of young people the Obama campaign has energized and inspired, who are walking on air intoxicated by the possibilities of political change. Here are some of them on Union Square - where I should have been, rather than with friends uptown (notice the time!):
All of us who supported the Obama campaign got an e-mail from Barack Obama (posted, it said, before he gave his acceptance speech in Chicago because "I wanted you to be the first to know"), in which he said he'd be in touch again soon. What if the next thing we're asked to do is find a Republican and befriend her? Talking heads would roll.
PS Of course this famous poster is red and blue, huh...
