While speaking at a meeting of the Republican National Committee in 2004, Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman claimed that support for Republicans had grown all across America since the disputed 2000 presidential election. Mehlman's peculiar choice of words, however, elicited considerable amusement from Democrats: "The red states have turned redder," he remarked, "while the blue states have turned purple!"

[In fact, many voters in blue states were so furious with their president that they vowed to support any candidate who could beat him.]