America's Five Most Democratic Counties

According to the latest popular vote tallies, Barack Obama's gifts and the New Black Panther Party's GOTV efforts earned the president 65,331,508 votes compared to 60,698,920 votes for Mitt Romney. Those on the losing side of this result can find solace in the Five Best Counties for Conservative Republicans, where they may be cocooned miles away from the nearest NPR-listening, Prius-driving, Obama-voting liberal.

For the winners, however, there's the realization that 60 million votes is still a ton of people. Are there any places in America where a Democrat can be away from the Romney-voting hordes and experience the same level of blissful epistemic closure as their conservative counterparts? Yes. Yes there are.

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Tags: Democrats, Liberals, Maryland, Mississippi, New York City, South Dakota, Washington DC

From the Pork Barrel: John Edwards for President

* The Onion endorses John Edwards for President! (This matters about as much as the Salt Lake Tribune's Obama endorsement.)

* Hispanic voters may decide the outcome in three important swing states. Good thing Romney had his son speak in Spanish at the convention. The electoral votes are as good as his!

* I worked really really hard on a joke for this story, so I hope you like it.

* Marriage equality is looking pretty safe in Maryland. If only Omar were around to see this.

* Download our free iPhone and iPad app Indecision Election Companion and jump up into the the Peanut Gallery — our liveblog/instant reaction arena — to watch and respond as Sen. Marco Rubio appears on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday morning at 10:30 am (EST).

Photo by Sara D. Davis/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Tags: Barack Obama, John Edwards, LGBT, Marco Rubio, Marriage Equality, Maryland, Meet the Press, Mitt Romney, Pork Barrel, The Onion

America's Ugliest Congressional Districts

No, not the district with highest quotient of ugly constituents. Everyone knows the New Jersey 5th has that locked down. Rather, Nate Silver's recent discussion of the Nebraska GOP's gerrymander of the 2nd Congressional District is a reminder that the 2012 election will be conducted with brand new district lines, courtesy of the 2010 Census and partisan gerrymandering.

The lines that create our congressional districts draw a picture of our democracy. Turns out, our democracy looks like a diseased whale uterus…

That's the Chicago 4th, an abomination formed by combining Chicagoland's two main Hispanic populations by way of an unpopulated highway median. It's number 3 on our list.

Number 2 on the list…

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Tags: Gerrymandering, House of Representatives, Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina

From the Pork Barrel: The Joy of Tithing

* Ann Romney says she loves giving tithing 10 percent of the family income to the Mormon Church so much that she cries. Her husband responded, "So do I, but for a different reason." Now that is an actual joke. I think.

* Todd Akin has promised the people of Missouri that he will hang himself limply from Mitt Romney's neck like an albatross all the way till November!

* A Tea Party state legislator who was warned the people of Maryland of how homosexuals will hurt our children got drunk and crashed his boat into another boat full of kids. Is this his way of coming out?

* Download our free iPhone and iPad app Indecision Election Companion and jump up into the the Peanut Gallery — our liveblog/instant reaction arena — to watch and respond with us as Jeb Bush and John McCain sit down with David Gregory to discuss probably a bunch of Republican stuff on NBC's Meet the Press.

Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Tags: ann, Jeb Bush, John McCain, LGBT, Maryland, Meet the Press, Mitt Romney, Mormon, Pork Barrel, State Legislature, Tea Party, Todd Akin

The Daily Show on Rick Santorum's Big Night of Losing

"This isn't the scene in the sports drama where the coach gives the inspiring speech and the the team comes back to win the playoffs. This is the scene in the sports drama where Hillary Swank hits her head on a stool and never boxes again." – Jon Stewart

The Daily Show airs Monday through Thursday at 11/10c.

Tags: Jon Stewart, Maryland, Mitt Romney, Primaries, Republicans, Rick Santorum, Ronald Reagan, The Daily Show, Video, Washington DC, Wisconsin