This year, we’ve all seen that familiar map of the United States on TV and in newspapers that shows which state’s electoral votes go to which candidate. Why is it that, on all the different TV networks, newspapers, and web sites that I’ve seen during this election, the states going to Bush are colored red, and the states going to Gore are colored blue? It is never the other way around! Who decided what the color scheme would be for this election? Are the Democratic candidates always represented by blue, and the GOP candidates always represented by red in every election? Why? Does it depend upon which candidate is predicted to win more states?
I can see why red and blue would be picked (very patriotic, and they contrast well), and I would guess that if Ralph Nader had won any states, he would be represented by green (since he’s in the Green Party), but there is nothing about blue that screams “Democrats!” and nothing about red that screams “Republicans!”, so why does every single news outlet out there use this copycat scheme?
Come to think of it, I’ve almost always seen the maps Blue/Dem and Red/Rep, too…all the way back to the first Presidential election I was old enough to pay any attention to, back in 1968.
The decision was probably made by the networks before that election, as it was the first after color teevee became widespread.
Interestingly enough…or maybe not…Gore wore a red necktie to the first debate and blue for the second two, Mallethead wore red throughout.
Funny thing is, for decades it was the other way around, almost universally, back to the Ford/Carter election, which is the first I (vaguely) recall. http://www.uselectionatlas.org still sticks to the traditional plan.
I’m not normally this cynical, but I can’t help wondering if the switch was made by consensus among media sources. That whole socialist thing.
CNN uses red for Bush, blue for Gore. The only map I could find was opened with java in a small window, so I can’t seem to paste a direct link. At the moment, they’ve a link on their homepage.
But you’re right, msnbc, cnn, and usatoday.com all used red for Bush and blue for Gore.
I recall Carter versus Ford (76); the major networks used red and blue for Carter and Ford, respectively (and wasn’t that the year Anderson was running as a 3rd-party candidate? They were going to use yellow in the unlikely event that he got some states, which he didn’t). Anyway, there were some folks complaining that using red for the Democratic candidate meshed a little bit too comfortably with the recurrent Republican accusation that the Democratic party was practically the Communist party. To a lesser extent, some conservatives objected to the implicit association of Republicans with “blue blooded wealthy” folks.
No such politically loaded baggage seems to come with painting Republicans red and Democrats blue. So those color choices are more likely to be used. Just another Politically Correct choice on the part of the major networks.
I was keeping track of the results online as I watched them on TV, and I confused myself at some points because they used the opposite color schemes. The TV station used red for Bush and blue for Gore, while the website used blue for Bush and red for Gore. The odd part is that they were both NBC affiliates.
BobT, I had the same thought about red and Republican starting with the same letter.
Other possible explanations:
red: as in red meat, e.g., Texan stake
blue: as in “Dead bodies turn blue” (easy to remember).
red: as in red blood.
blue: as in blue blood.
Wow, the most innocuous mention of politics still brings out the idiots.
Personally I only saw coverage in which the GOP was Red and the Dems were Blue, and in my short memory it has always been this way. For some reason I have a glimmer of recollection in which a third party canidate took a state and it was colored yellow by most. Can’t figure out if this is a figment of my imagination or not.
Uke, I always saw the tie dynamic between the two and I envisioned some elaborate late night scheming session in both camps as to what color tie would be the most effective. Not sure why the simple red and blue they always chose gave me the impression of there being alot of thought involved in it.
I vote for the tie explaination. Dubya wears red ties a lot. Gore tends to blue. The networks were merely following the already established color scheme.
Anderson may have run in 1976, but his biggest showing was in the 1980 race.
I too remember Carter=red, Ford=blue. We had just got our first color TV. When I saw the map on our B&W TV, it looked like Ford had Carter’s states and vice versa, opposite of what the commentators were saying. Then I turned on the color set and the colors were right. I then turned down the color level, and it changed. That’s when I realized that red looks darker on a B&W set than blue does!
