Remember all the fuss about Ohio in the 2004 election? Had he been running on the new electoral map, released yesterday by the Census Bureau, George W. Bush could have won re-election without even carrying Ohio. That’s not to say that Ohio doesn’t matter anymore, or that any Republican will have it easy running against President Obama in 2012. Bush had to defeat Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass, in several hard-fought swing states — Iowa, New Mexico, Florida, Nevada, Arizona, and Missouri — to get his 286 electoral votes, which translates to 292 electoral votes on the new map. Obama’s large victory would still hold up, although the margin would have been 12 votes smaller.
But the point is that the new electoral map is a bit gentler for the GOP, and a bit tougher for President Obama’s re-election effort.
