>[I wonder if there would be a way to map this in a way that would be
>striking and clear. Perhaps by county?]
there was a county by county map from 2000. It used pink > red and light blue > dark blue. Can't find it now, though. Here are some ways of presenting the data that can be more or less striking. I, of course, like the one that makes limpdick look much healthier, especially my county. It's little tiny thing hanging off the state, but we have the highest population density in the state!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/countymap2000.htm (by county, blue v red. Click the tabs to switch back and forth b/t 2000-2004)
Robert Vanderbei has some interesting representations and he's even selling them as posters on Cafepress. http://www.princeton.edu/%7Ervdb/JAVA/election2004/
Here's the most popular collection of maps, some of which alter the shape of the country to account for population density: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/
"We live under the Confederacy. We're a podunk bunch of swaggering pious hicks."
--Bruce Sterling