I have a very yellowed copy. :)

Yeah Friz, I didn't even know what The Stranger was four years ago, and I've seen this a billion times posted on Slog, referenced on Slog, on a deck of building cards as well as a deck of playing cards.

The only copy of The Stranger I've held on to. The Urban Arhipelago article is epic.

I have it framed. So very different than this years post election cover eh?

If Obama ran based on the thinking in that article, he would have lost.

Yeah, BO's campaign really makes this cover look absolutely inane. You city folk sure are a hysterical lot.

@5, @6

Are you just being contrarian? Cities seem to be a huge chunk of what Barack Obama won. "Where is Obamaland?"

One of The Stranger's finest moments, IMO.

@2 What are building cards?

I still have my copy. I should post the picture of me reading it on Flicker soon someday.

For four years The Stranger has been confusing a good cover with a good idea. The urban archipelago idea is dumb. What 5 and 6 said. I'm kind of amazed that you guys keep bringing it up. You've been completely proved wrong. Obama won with a 50-state strategy, not a cities-only strategy.

I decoupaged it onto canvas and hung it on the wall.

@11:

Rural voters have been considered reliably Republican since President Bush overwhelmingly won their votes in his two presidential elections. In 2008, they supported John McCain 56.4 percent to 43 percent — that's close to a landslide.

What President-elect Obama did not do is unite the country. His bump in rural areas is nothing compared with his monumental gain in cities — a margin there of close to 13 million votes — up 10 percent from John Kerry's urban take. That makes the urban-rural political divide as big as ever.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96782692

You're all right--and wrong. Obama's "base" (i.e., the counties he won) is predominantly urban. This tells me generally where the local populace and I will be simpatico.

However, the source of a state's electoral votes doesn't matter. Obama won so many new states because of the large shift in votes--in nearly all counties--toward the blue.

@5,6,11:
To me, this cover is all about stopping people from fleeing the country and/or killing themselves. I don't believe it was meant as a sign that in the future a candidate should only campaign in cities. How could you possibly take offense to someone saying that big cities are progressive? That's basically what this cover is about. It was to make us all feel better. I love it.