If Obama is elected a firehose of USAID will be drenching sub-Saharan Africa and everything will be fixed with $US.
So they got that going for them. :D
Comparing Chicago and Texas to the rest of the US is apples and oranges.
Chicago = commodities, ag
Texas = duh, oil. It doesn't have to even produce oil to make money off the oil boom. Virtually all the major service companies are based in Houston.