http://www.electoral-vote.com/
If you move your mouse over any of the other states bordering the Great Lakes, either Kerry has a significant lead, or they are about equally divided between Kerry and Bush. However, in Indiana Bush is ahead by 16%. And if you click on Indiana, you’ll see that Bush has always had a huge lead in the polls. Thus the latest poll isn’t a statistical outlier.
What is it about Indiana that makes it so more pro-Bush than the other upper-Midwest states?
Folks are smarter in Indiana? 
$20 is has something to do with corn.
As for folks being smarter in Indiana… um, yea… the great minds of Indiana…
Hey!!! James Whitcomb Riley was from Indiana!
Granted, he probbly never would vote for Bush, and neither would The Raggedy Man.
Maybe it’s because Bush rooted for their sports teams. What were they good in? Basketball or football? Basketball, right?
./collegiate sports were never a big deal at Cal… wonder why…
As an ammendment, I took a cross-contry train ride that happened to go through Indiana (and unfortunately, Chicago as a layover point shudder)… that entire stretch from Indiana to Chicago is hilighted as one of the most depressing parts of my life.
Especially the route entering Chicago. The neighborhoods to the south I guess around the railroad tracks… shudder I never truly believed slums like that existed until I saw them with my own eyes.
But that’s off topic. And off state.
Indiana is a solidly Republican state, and hasn’t gone Dem for President since 1964.
As for why: Several likely reasons. The big city in Indiana (Indianapolis) is far more Republican than Detroit and Chicago. Organized labor isn’t as important as it is in Ohio and Michigan. The northern part of the state (except for the Gary area) has been solidly Republican since the Civil War, and the southern part of the state, while traditionally Democratic, is also very socially conservative.
Anything I’ve missed?
The silly Hoosiers elected Dan Quayle as senator. Nuff said.
Racin’, Kip!
Well, not NASCAR, but still, it’s Racin’!
Kerry is ahead by 14% in Illinois. Bush is ahead by 16% in Indiana. Many of the midwest states have Bush ahead by about 10-15%. Kerry still carries 40% of the vote in this state, so its not like we are all Bush country.
As far as why, I would assume the isolation plays a part. Alot of Indiana is isolated small towns with little diversity and not many ‘big city’ problems. There are alot of churches and christian devotion and republicanism are connected
http://www.ciruli.com/polls/kerryreligion-804.htm
Those who attend religious services regularly vote 56% to 28% in favor of Bush while those who never go voted 60% to 27% in favor of Kerry.
So I would say the fact that the midwest is more religious and we are culturally isolated plays a big role.
As far as why we are different than Ohio or Illinois, I can’t say. Why is Illinois in favor of Kerry, Indiana in favor of Bush and Ohio undecided? Hell if I know.
That hurt
I dunno that religion is much of a factor. As if Illinois just to the west is infested with atheists? However, if Indiana is a lot of isolated small towns, and minimal urbanization, this would explain a lot. I live next door in Michigan. The vast majority of the people in MI live in urbanized area. Yeah, we have small towns and farmers in this state. But statistically they are just a small percent of the population. If Indiana is much more rural than MI, this would explain a lot why they are so pro-Bush.
How large is ethnic minorities in Indiana? Quite a few black folks in MI in the urban areas, and certainly in Illinois there is no lack of black people in the Chicago area. If Indiana is a lot more Caucasian than the other states bordering the Great Lakes, this would explain why Bush is doing so well.
(As an aside about the religious factor, AFAIK blacks are at least as religious as white folks. It has to do with historically in the South black churches were very important to their culture. Their churches were the one institution they had that even white racists couldn’t stomach going after. Little surprise the most notable black leader in the US, MLK, Jr., was a minister by profession.)
Here in Indiana the 3rd largest city has 250k people. The 8th largest city has about 70k people and our total population is a little over 6 million. So you can assume that about 50-60% of the state lives in towns with less than 30k people in them.
here is a statistic
http://www.eagleton.rutgers.edu/News-Research/NewVoters/Ethnicity.html
Indiana is more caucasian than Michigan or Illinois, but not enough to explain the voting differences.
Has Bush taken a stand on the value of pi? That could be a factor in Indiana.
??? Indiana voters are heavily into mathematics? The value of pi has been mathematically proved to be an irrational number starting with 3.1415926…
Ther is a famous story about a legislator in the Indiana House trying to get the value of Pi legally changed to exactly 3 because of a passage in the Bible.
Indiana has only one big city, and it’s not very big. In fact, Indianapolis is the smallest big city in the USA (IMO). A million people in the metro area, and almost all of them act as though they live in a isolated village of 1000 people.
Ohio, Illinois and Michigan all have much larger and more urbanized big cities. These tend to make up for the rural voters in those states.
And don’t forget that silly tourism jingle for Indianapolis in the 70’s or 80’s that perfectly sums up the city’s pitiful inferiority complex:
“Move Over New York-- Apple is Our Middle Name!”
When my train was passing by there, all I really saw was a grain silo, but my mind projected the race track. Dunno if I could really see it from the train or not though.
BTW, gov’t should probably stay out of defining geometry. IMHO.