Looking ahead to the gubernatorial election (in which his seat is at stake), Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is worried about geography:

One day after announcing he was running in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, former U.S. Rep. Joseph Hoeffel was out, a victim of a hard reality of winning in a large state with strong geographical - and cultural - divisions.

Hoeffel's quick departure came at the resquest of Gov. Rendell, who in the last week decided that the Montgomery County resident would be a geographical liability in the general election against a balanced Republican ticket.

Hoeffel, speaking at a news conference with Rendell yesterday, said: "The bottom line is he is asking me not to go forward with the race."

Hoeffel's exit gives the edge to Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll, whose strongest asset might be her Pittsburgh roots, which balance Rendell's deep political ties to Southeastern Pennsylvania.

"He doesn't come with all the political baggage of a career politician who's beholden to all these people he does business with," said Glenn Pison, 36, of Shaler. The independent voter said his wife votes far to the left, but even she is considering a vote for Swann.

Swann's race is not a factor with any other white voters that Pison knows, though he does wonder whether voters in eastern portions of the state -- i.e. Philadelphia Eagles territory -- will vote for a Steeler for governor. "But they just won the Super Bowl and that can only help him," Pison said.

Hell, if I were Rendell I'd be wetting my pants. (No wonder he sounded so worn out and nervous announcing the dump-Hoeffel move on the radio yesterday.)

Of course, all Rendell mentions is geography. And even that is something he says shouldn't matter, but if it does matter, it's only because it's the Republicans' fault:

Rendell, who had initially said he was neutral on Hoeffel's candidacy, decided to ask him to withdraw after talking with party leaders in the southwest, who told him two Democrats from Southeastern Pennsylvania would be a hard sell in their region.

"Two southeasterners on the ticket was very difficult for them," he said. "There are some in the Republican Party who will try to make it an east-west race when it shouldn't be."

Democratic leaders in the west said geographical balance on a ticket has become vital to a gubernatorial victory.

Or is that a blue state that's red?

Here's the national map -- graphically illustrating the popular stereotype of "blue state" Pennsylvania:

How uniformly blue the entire Northeast region appears! Pennsylvania is nearly a third of the geographical area, and psychologically, it's vital to the blue staters and their foes to point to that large swath of a supposedly impenetrable leftist stronghold.

The problem with this analysis is that when seen by counties, Pennsylvania looks very, very red.

(Pity Rendell. Depending on which map he looks at in the morning, he might feel as if he's being forced to be governor over a bunch of "flyover country.")

I realize that the vast majority of us live in places which are varying shades of purple. But that's not sexy. Nor does it appeal to the us-versus-them, energize-the-base party activists. This is not to deny that there is real geographical (at least demographical) tension in this country. But it's more along the lines of "Big Cities" versus "The Rest." It is not the country which is blue; it is the cities which are blue. For the most part, the cities aren't even purple, the way the rest of the country is; Philadelphia is about as blue as it's possible to be. A full 80% of Philadelphians voted for John Kerry in the last election, (ditto Gore in 2000). Al Gore received a whopping 98 percent of Philadelphia's black vote.

But the demographics are changing. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer,

Bush also drew 16 percent of the black vote in Pennsylvania (up from 7 percent in 2000), and that's one reason his loss to Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.) was far narrower than expected.

I wonder whether it's talk like this that might be putting the "fear of GOP" into him:

...one Republican strategist argued that any measurable inroad into the Democrats' minority support, even if Mr. Rendell still held onto the bulk of the African-Americans voters, could be fatal to the Democrat's re-election.

"If [Mr. Swann] got 18 to 25 percent [of black voters], he would be elected governor," the Republican said.