Bush-Bashing

An article in the metro section of today's New York Times reports on a visit by President Bush to Connecticut. "Actually, Connecticut did not show much kinship toward Mr. Bush in the last election," the Times reports. "In the primary, the state, like the rest of the Northeast, voted for Mr. Bush's Republican rival, Senator John McCain, and in November it voted overwhelmingly for the Democrat, Al Gore." This sentence seems to be asserting that Mr. McCain beat Mr. Bush in every Republican primary in the Northeast. That's just false. Mr. Bush beat Mr. McCain in Maine's March 7, 2000, primary, 51 percent to 44 percent. And Mr. Bush beat Mr. McCain in New York's March 7, 2000, primary, 51 percent to 43 percent. Surely New York and Maine are considered part of the Northeast.