forgo daily

I came here tonight to post cute pictures of my dog sleeping in awkward positions. As I scrolled down the page to get to the link to write the post, the 2008 obesity map from a post back in July came on the screen. Something about it caught my eye. I stared at the map as my brain slowly clicked the pieces together.

I’ve spent more of my energy reading about and paying attention to the 2008 election than any previous one. One part of that is watching the polls every day and looking at maps where shades of blue and red become lighter and darker. As I looked at the obesity map, it struck me that it doesn’t look too different than the current 2008 electoral map. Let’s take a look.

Here’s the obesity map:

And here’s the 2008 electoral map prediction from Pollster.com as of October 20, 2008:

Now, I know it’s not perfect, but there definitely is some correlation:

• 90% of the ten most obese states are leaning Republican (MI, WV, AL, LA, AR, SC, TN, KY, OK)
• 80% of the ten least obese states are leaning Democrat (CO, HI, CT, MA, VT, RI, DC, NJ)
• 70% of the twenty most obese states are Republican, 20% Toss Up and 10% Democrat
• 75% of the twenty least obese states are Democrat, 10% Toss Up and 15% Republican

I don’t purport to imply that the correlation means anything, but it’s fun to think about.