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Posts published in “Day: November 24, 2008”

WA/OR: The Obama percentage

Very possibly someone else somewhere has made note of it, but we can't recall seeing it anywhere, and merits some mention here regardless:

Turns out that the percentage of the vote Democrat Barack Obama received this month in Washington (57.6%) and in Oregon (56.8%) was the highest any presidential candidate has received since Lyndon Johnson (whose numbers were 62% in Washington and 63.7% in Oregon) in 1964. Higher than Clinton, Reagan, Nixon/72. He was the most popular presidential candidate in those states in the last 44 years. Duly noted.

Boise and Micron

Credit the Idaho Statesman with running the kind of hard-headed business analysis piece that dares to make their readers go gulp - apart from their morning coffee . . .

The article asks the question, Is Micron Technology on track to phase down or out of Boise? There aren't any definitive answers, as there couldn't reasonably be (barring an abrupt blast of sunlight from within Micron corporate leadership). But the relevant factors and the parameters and possibilities are cleanly laid out. (At least one very long-time economic consultant of our acquaintance, Richard Slaughter, is quoted: "Micron is likely to go away.")

A necessary read, for those interested in Boise's (and Idaho's) near-term economic future.