The footnote

Racial prejudice was, as Jonathan and I wrote this morning, a footnote in yesterday's result, quite possibly outweighed by the increase in black turnout and the excitement among many white voters at making history.

But Matthew Yglesias spots this map of counties where McCain outpolled Bush, and outside Alaska and Arizona, the trail of red south down the Appalachian mountains, and the fact that his sweeping victory didn't include the Democratic states of West Virginia and Arkansas, does suggest that race had some staying power.

(via Andrew Sullivan)