As the person behind Patchwork Nation let me say that I enjoy reading all your comments -- and agree with a great many of them.

Some may feel 11 groups are too few, some too many. Honestly, in a place as big and diverse as the United States you could have 100. We needed a number that we thought sufficiently accounted for differences but didn't overwhelm and aimed for somewhere between 10 and 15. Using that as a target with the data we had, we wound up with 11.

Are they perfect? No. But overall, I think you'll find the communities we've grouped really do share a lot of commonalities.

And don't let that map on the front page fool you. Those are the BEST matches for those counties with our groups not the ONLY ones. Look at the inside pages of the site like this one and you see more nuanced maps that take differences into account.

The "county" problem is harder to get around. Counties are better units than states or even congressional districts as a measure. There are more of them, which allows for more "granularity." But they can still be fairly large and diverse -- especially out West.

Regardless, thanks to you all for coming by the site. Please check back. We're going to be doing some interesting stuff with economic and donation data in the coming weeks and months

I do think there is something to the monied burbs contention. Northern Virginia, Silicon Valley, the North Carolina Triangle, and the burbs of places like Denver, Boston, Chicago, LA, Phoenix, do have a lot of similarities, regardless of the red/blue of their state. They tend to like the economic policies of the GOP and the social policies of the Democrats. But the authors got carried away lumping some of the smaller places that are more culturally conservative. Los Alamos, sure, lots of Ivy League and so forth there. But Aiken, SC? And Wichita, KS and Jackson, MS may be a step closer but they still don't fit.

Red versus Blue is almost certainly too simple

In looking at the internal fights with both parties, this cycle, that statement would seem to contain an extra word..."Almost".

In Presidential politics, however, the Red/Blue distinction is all that matters.

... and....

Or even about winning and losing Presidential elections. This data may be much more relevant to down-ticket races where such a breakout does indeed matter.

Obviously incorrect, it DOES in fact matter, at the presidential levels, and not just downticket, if we are to take the number of Clinton supporters that won't vote for Obama and versa-Visa as any indication... as well as the number of Republicans saying they won't vote for McCain.

What is striking to me is how so much of this comes down to subcultures, to the point of giving much credibility to the conept of the infleunce of the stereotypical regional subcultures...(Incorporating both the good and bad) being relfected in the politics of the area.
I wonder about how this speaks to the issues of multiculturalism as it has been embraced by northeastern liberals, particualrly?

New England
South
Center-East
Center-West
West
and Texas.

But everything isn't about winning and losing elections. CSM isn't quite committing political science here but it's at least amateur sociology.

Or even about winning and losing Presidential elections. This data may be much more relevant to down-ticket races where such a breakout does indeed matter.

Until we get rid of the electoral college, making a lot of fuss about sub-geographies is pretty pointless.

But everything isn't about winning and losing elections. CSM isn't quite committing political science here but it's at least amateur sociology.

Red versus Blue is almost certainly too simple. The political cultures of Ohio, Alabama, and Idaho aren’t identical simply because they made the same aggregate choice between two parties. Eleven sub-groups, divided down to the county level, is much more helpful than that. But it takes away a lot of parsimony while giving too strong an impression of precision.

In Presidential politics, however, the Red/Blue distinction is all that matters.

This seems like a colossal waste of effort and indicative of nothing more than a desire to show off pretty maps.

Until we get rid of the electoral college, making a lot of fuss about sub-geographies is pretty pointless.