The political pendulum in the country has swung madly during the 2000 decade, vacillating between Democratic and Republican quite a few times. The most obvious manifestation of this is in the popular vote, which has certainly changed its share of times. We have, in general, had more Republican Presidents than Democratic ones, which leads me to today's question: Who is the last Democrat to win a majority of the popular vote? Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter or John Kennedy?
Okay, this one was a little unfair - the correct answer is Barack Obama. It's a trick question, more or less.
In 2008, Barack Obama beat John McCain 52.9-45.7%. Prior to that, though, you do have to go back a ways. Bill Clinton was denied a majority of the popular vote in both of his elections - in 1992 he won with 43% of the vote, beating George H.W. Bush (37.5%) and George Perot (18.9% of the vote, but no electoral votes). In 1996, Clinton won with 49.2% of the vote, besting Bob Dole (40.7%) and Perot again (8.4%, again with no electoral votes).
Prior to that, Jimmy Carter did win a majority of the vote in the 1976 elections, beating President Ford by a 50.1-48% margin. John Kennedy, however, was denied a majority of the popular vote, beating Nixon in 1960 by a 49.7-49.6% margin.
Call me a nerd, but its interesting that Democrats always seem to have issues winning a majority of the vote, don't you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment