STUNNING – AT 7:33 A.M. ET:  Superlative political analyst Michael Barone tells us this morning that the Democratic Party is retreating to the coasts, its prospects in most of America vastly diminished.  From the Washington Examiner:

The map of the Senate races shows Republicans leading over almost all the landmass of America. Democrats are ahead in the three West Coast states and Hawaii (though not by much in California and Washington) and by 1 point in Nevada. They're also ahead in four states along the Atlantic Coast -- Maryland, Delaware, New York, Connecticut -- plus Vermont.

Republicans lead in all the other Senate races, from Philadelphia to Phoenix and Boca Raton to Boise. True, their candidate leads by only 1 point in Barack Obama's home state of Illinois. And they've got narrow leads in some mountain states (West Virginia, Colorado, Kentucky)...

...It would be more difficult to draw a map showing the party margins in the 435 House districts. For one thing, there are no publicly available polls in many districts. But if you could draw such a map, I think you'd see Democrats holding onto districts dominated by their core constituencies (blacks, Hispanics, and the affluent voters Joel Kotkin calls gentry liberals) and struggling just about everywhere else, from factory towns to high-income suburbs.

Taken together, all these maps show a Democratic Party shrinking back to its bicoastal base and a Republican Party expanding to take in most of the vast expanse of the continent.

Barone cautions, of course, that the election has not yet been held, and that results can change. 

But for the moment, anyway, the vast expanse of America is hospitable to Republicans while Democrats seem appreciated only in their coastal and campus redoubts.

COMMENT:  And, of course, appreciation in campus redoubts has its limits.  After all, say some academics, Obama is not leftist enough.

Barone paints a gloomy picture for the Dems.  Our hearts are breaking.

September 29, 2010