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poor journalism
... elsewhere on the web
mon 2004-aug-16 17:39:02 pdt
... permalink
Here's a Reuters story on how some
researchers are predicting Kerry will win in November because he has
more royal ancestry. In it, they quote one Harold Brooks-Baker as
saying the following:
"Because of the fact that every presidential candidate with the most
royal genes and chromosomes has always won the November presidential
election, the coming election -- based on 42 previous presidents --
will go to John Kerry."
The notion that every election has gone to the more royal candidate is
plainly impossible, since there have been several "rematches" between
the same pair of candidates, and in some of those the loser has come
back four years later and defeated the same opponent. The most
obvious example of this is Grover Cleveland, the only president to
serve nonconsecutive terms -- Benjamin Harrison ousted him in 1888,
only to be ousted back in 1892...
Here's a page that lists the winners and losers in all
the presidential elections. As it happens, they're listing them
for the purpose of demonstrating that the candidate with more
syllables is usually elected, but at least they're not claiming
always, which is clearly not the case! (And fortunately the "more
syllables are better" theory also puts Kerry over Bush!)
In any case, that list shows the following rematches that went the
other direction the second time:
- 1796 and 1800 - John Adams vs Thomas Jefferson
- 1824 and 1828 - John Quincy Adams vs Andrew Jackson
- 1836 and 1840 - Martin Van Buren vs William Henry Harrison
- 1888 and 1892 - Grover Cleveland vs Benjamin Harrison
Interestingly, we can also conclude that if you yourself are a
Harrison or if you lose to an Adams, then you should try again, as you
will win the second time.
On the other hand, the rematches that went the same direction
the second time around are:
- 1896 and 1900 - William McKinley vs William Jennings Bryan
- 1956 and 1960 - Dwight D. Eisenhower vs Adlai Stevenson
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