I'll give you that, but Obama still performed much better in Western NC as a whole. Buncombe, home of Asheville, and the Cherokee counties are exceptions, but it also wasn't uncommon to see Obama hit the 40's in several others, and any county where Romney got more than 70% was rare. Contrast that with North Georgia, where it was rare to see Obama get 20%.
Exactly, of the counties on the NC-GA border, Obama's best in GA was Rabun, where he lost 77%-21%, and Obama's worst in NC was Cherokee, where he lost 72%-26%.
I wonder if this is true in any other state border where Obama's worst county on one side of the border is better than his best county on the other side (excluding borders with only 1 county on either side). MA and NH come to mind.
California and Arizona works too, unsurprisingly. MA/NH doesn't work because Cheshire in NH is more Dem than Worcester in MA. I expected New York and Vermont to work, but Clinton (Plattsburgh) beat out Rutland, which apparently weighs in at an incredibly anemic 59.7%. I thought only Essex would be sub-60!
I also checked a couple other borders in New England, and Illinois/Kentucky, which doesn't quite make it (but probably did in 2008). Can't think of any other plausible candidates.
