Since the primaries, there has been a lot of discussion of Obama's appeal, or lack thereof, in this or that state or region--often, of course, this was framed in terms of "he's unelectable because hard-working white Americans in Ohio and Pennsylvania won't vote for him" or "He redefines the map by putting Southern and Mountain states into play."
So I've taken a look at the margin by which Obama outperformed John Kerry in each state. In other words, if Kerry lost a state by 2.5 points and Obama won it by 6.5 points, the margin is 9 points (about the national average). I got my data mostly from Election Atlas, but consulted the DKos map for the latest on Oregon and Washington.
The most striking pattern is in those states where Obama beat Kerry by five points or less (or didn't outperform him at all). Some of them are home-state effects:
AK (0)
AZ (2)
MA (1)
It's actually kinda impressive that Obama outperformed Kerry in McCain's home state and in Kerry's home state.
Here are the rest of the states where Barack 'underperformed':
AL (5)
AR (-10)
KY (4)
LA (-3)
OK (0)
TN (-1)
WV (0)
Gee, see a pattern there? I was always a skeptic on the PUMA thing, but looking at AR's (minus ten!) and noting that AR, LA, TN, KY, WV are precisely the Southern and quasi-Southern states that Clinton won twice...well, I don't know.
One could also describe this as Obama's Appalachian problem, though OK and LA aren't usually considered part of Appalachia (I'm not sure where they rate on the "american" ancestry variable that Nate uses at 538. In any case, it's abundantly clear that uneducated Southern white people do not like our new President at all.
At the opposite end are states where Obama outpolled Kerry by more than a dozen points. Again, there are home-state effects:
DE (18)
HI (38)
IL (14)
I'll wager that Mr. Obama will never again be allowed to pay for a beer at any bar in the Rainbow State. The home advantage may also play a role in:
IN (22)
WI (13)
The Indiana thing is just amazing, presumably a combination of proximity to Chicago in NW Indiana and maybe the most devastating ground-game mismatch in history. It's all the more impressive because southern Indiana is more part of the Mid-South than the Midwest in a lot of ways.
We also have the prosperous and well-educated South:
NC (13)
VA (13)
There are also states where the liberals are very liberal:
CA (14)
VT (16)
OR might join this group before it's over...I know, California isn't as liberal as we thought it was (Prop 8).
Finally, Obama did realize his expected strength in various parts of the Plains...
ND (19)
NE (17)
SD (13)
...and the Mountain West:
ID (13)
MT (17)
NV (15)
NM (15)
UT (17)
Of course it's easy to pick up points if you're starting from zero as in Utah...what's really impressive is how Obama took perennial razor's-edge states like New Mexico and Nevada and blew them completely out of the water....I mean, I enjoy trashing the incompetence of the McCain campaign as much as anyone, but when someone's beating you by 15 points, there's not much you can do but admire.