Holmes County, Florida

[Meeker]

Holmes is arguably the most redneck place in Florida, a poor rural area on the Alabama line. As of 2005, it had 18,564 people- 90 percent of them white, 6 percent black, 19 percent of them below the poverty line. The biggest town is county seat Bonifay, with ~2800 people. There are lots of places like this across the South, of course, but Holmes is completely typical of Deep South white conservatism. i.e.,

1960: Kennedy 66%, Nixon 34%
1964: Goldwater 73%, Johnson 27% [Swing: R+78]                                   
1968: Wallace 87%, Nixon 7%, Humphrey 6% [Wallace's fifth-best showing in the nation]
1972: Nixon 93%, McGovern 7% [Nixon's fourth-best showing in the nation]
1976: Carter 63%, Ford 36% [Swing: D+113]
1980: Reagan 52%, Carter 45%
1984: Reagan 79%, Mondale 21%
1988: Bush 72%, Dukakis 28%
1992: Bush 49%, Clinton 29%, Perot 22%
1996: Dole 48%, Clinton 34%, Perot 18%
2000: Bush 68%, Gore 29%
2004: Bush 77%, Kerry 22% [Swing: R+16]
2008: McCain 82%, Obama 17% [Swing: R+10]

Charming. But just to make sure you don't get the wrong impression, here are the 2008 presidential primary results...

D (2,768 votes) Edwards 49%, Clinton 30%, Obama 11%, Richardson 4%
R (1,225 votes) Huckabee 35%, McCain 33%, Romney 20%, Giuliani 7%, Paul 3%

Should we laugh or cry?

Depends. If democrats however win Florida, we can laugh thinking that a Republican can win 82% in a county with losing the state. If republicans win Florida by a ridiculous margin as Bush'2000, it will certainly make me cry.

You missed his point...