Best piece of the cycle by Nate Silver (@fivethirtyeight) on destiny of geography- recalls V.O. Key’s ’49 “friends+neighbors” theory:

In G.O.P. Nomination Race, Geography Has Been Destiny

By NATE SILVER

Rick Santorum’s victory in the Kansas caucuses on Saturday wasn’t much of a surprise, but his margin was toward the high end of expectations as he took 51 percent of the vote to Mitt Romney’s 21 percent. It was the largest margin of defeat for Mr. Romney in caucus or primary to date, although he lost the “beauty contest” primary in neighboring Missouri by almost as large a margin.

Mr. Santorum’s success in Kansas was also geographically sweeping. He took all four Congressional districts and all but one small county. Under Kansas’ delegate allocation rules, he should receive about 33 delegates to Mr. Romney’s 7 once the results are verified.