Michael Barone - Census: Fast growth in states with no income tax
For those of us who are demographic buffs, Christmas came four days early when Census Bureau director Robert Groves announced on Tuesday the first results of the 2010 census and the reapportionment of House seats (and therefore electoral votes) among the states.
The resident population of the United States, he told us in a webcast, was 308,745,538. That's an increase of 9.7 percent from the 281,421,906 in the 2000 census -- the smallest proportional increase than in any decade other than the Depression 1930s but a pretty robust increase for an advanced nation. It's hard to get a grasp on such large numbers. So let me share a few observations on what they mean.
First, the great engine of growth in America is not the Northeast Megalopolis, which was growing faster than average in the mid-20th century, or California, which grew lustily in the succeeding half-century. It is Texas.
David Freddoso - Making sense of the Census
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.
Susan Ferrechio - In victory for Obama, Senate advances arms treaty
In a crucial victory for President Obama's efforts to establish a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia, the Senate on Tuesday voted 67-28 to end debate on the START treaty over a vocal but shrinking chorus of GOP objectors.
Timothy P. Carney - North Carolina is the new Utah -- and DC representation is even deader than it was before
D.C. congressional representation was a possibility last decade, in part because of a proposed compromise that pleased Republicans: we increase the chamber from 435 seats to 437; D.C. would get one seat, and overwhelmingly Republican Utah would get another.
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