In trying to calculate Sen. John McCain’s chance of upsetting a Democratic trend, faced with loathed Bush policies and an intransigent Bush administration, one has to begin with the fact that solidly Democratic votes in the Electoral College substantially exceed solidly Republican electoral votes.

Here is the run-down:

 

• Two vote behemoths anchor the Electoral College map and arithmetic, California (55) and New York (31), a hefty chunk of 86 electoral votes solidly Democratic. They went to Hillary Clinton in the primaries, and both go for Democrats in national elections.

 

• This fact alone deals the GOP a hefty ...   more »