The correlation between red state and poverty is also relative to two major components of our economy, ports and industry. Of course states with little industry and low populations are hitting poverty levels and coastal states and those with sufficient industry are going to be where the educated are going to work, where economic crisis will hit the least.

You really cant blame these states for falling short when so much of Americas manufacturing and other industries that brought stability to these regions has been moved to foreign lands. One of the reasons for red states turning blue in the last presidential election was based on Obamas sermon on NAFTA reform and bringing manufacturing back to the US.

Look at the numbers of welfare recipients in some of the blue states compared to red and the percentage of change http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/25/us/20090126-welfare-table.html

Percent of households with cash public assistance income -
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/eco_per...sistance-income

You can point your finger at the obese wal-mart crowd all you want but there are plenty of hipster douche-bags sucking off the government too.