Yes, I know this is just a coincidence, so please don’t email me. I’m a card-carrying Skeptic who puts no value in calendar quirks. But…
Has anyone else noticed that presidential elections in years than end in 4 tend to be ridiculously one-sided affairs? We’re talking about real blowouts here. If you’re into looking for historic “signs,” 2004 may be on track for a landslide.
Consider a few examples:
1984 — Ronald Reagan beat Walter Mondale in one of the worst electoral landslides in American history. Reagan won 49 states — 97% of the available electoral votes.
1964 — Lyndon Johnson defeated Republican Barry Goldwater in the biggest popular vote landslide in history. Johnson took 61% of the popular vote, an all time record, while Goldwater carried just six states (10% of the electoral vote).
1944 — FDR crushed Thomas Dewey to win an unprecedented fourth term. Roosevelt won 432 electoral votes (81% of the available votes).
1924 — Calvin Coolidge beat John Davis pretty badly, winning about 72% of the nation’s electoral votes and almost doubling Davis’ popular vote totals.
1904 — Teddy Roosevelt trampled Alton Parker, winning the popular vote by 20 percentage points and winning over 70% of the electoral votes.
1864 — Abraham Lincoln embarrassed George McClellan, winning 22 of 25 states on route to getting over 90% of the available electoral votes. (Of course, the South was a separate country at the time, but that’s not really the point here.)
1804 — Thomas Jefferson beat Charles Pinckney badly to win a second term. Popular vote totals aren’t available that far back, but Jefferson won 16 of 18 states and got a whopping 92% of the electoral vote.
An odd coincidence or a disturbing trend going into next year’s election? Carpetbagger reports, you decide.