Crushed Bones and Coats with no Tails

The final numbers for November's election are now posted on the Secretary of State's website, and according to the final tally, Gov. Schwarzenegger carried Orange County with 69.7% of the vote. Writing at California Progress Report, Frank D. Russo describes the gov's margin of victory in OC as "bone crushing", but points out that Phil Angelides bones were crushed to even finer dust elsewhere.

[Schwarzenegger] carried other counties outside of the Orange Curtain by higher margins, including 14 rural counties where he exceeded 70% of the vote.

Glenn County ("about half way between Sacramento and Redding… near Chico State University and Butte College", according to the official Glenn County website) was the most Schwarzeneggerian, with the Sacramento strongman racking up 76.6% of the vote.

In the end, Phil Angelides only carried six counties-- which makes how poorly the statewide Republican candidates who didn't star in Kindergarten Cop did all the more remarkable. The Republicans only picked up one statewide office, Insurance Commissioner, and, as anemic as Angelides' vote total was, Russo notes, "Angelides got more votes than Republicans did in four statewide races: Poochigian (Attorney General), Claude Parrish (Treasurer), Tony Strickland (Controller) and Dennis Mountjoy (US Senator)."

I don't what the opposite of "coattails" is, but whatever it is, Arnold's got it.