What % is a landslide?

[Coda]

Question Withdrawn.

[Vince Kargatis]

Defining an electoral landslide doesn't seem particularly meaningful to me. You can have a razor-thin popular vote difference and a huge electoral difference pretty easily. Certainly such a situation doesn't typically fit the criteria for a purported "mandate".

[Coda]

Okay, you could have just ignored the question.

[Vince Kargatis]

Not really. You raise the question of how to characterize a "landslide", and I'm weighing in against using the electoral vote as an indicator. Additionally, you seem to confuse electoral and popular in your Nader comment, since Nader will receive 0 electors guaranteed.

Why do you think that a 5% electoral difference will qualify as a "landslide"? What connotations do you attach to the term?

[Chris D]

Any Electoral College win amassing 300 votes would qualify as a landslide in my book.

[patricia]

To Mr Bush in 2000, a margin of 537 votes and a favourable decision from the Supreme Court constituted a landslide, not to mention a mandate to set into motion his "Revenge on Iraq" for trying to kill his father. You are shouldering the casualties and the expense of Mr Bush's attempt to show his family that he isn't the total screwup that he has been for his entire adult life. At least there's that.

[Gentle Giant]

"Mandate my ass!"
- Gil Scot-Heron

[crawjo]

Originally Posted by Chris D

Any Electoral College win amassing 300 votes would qualify as a landslide in my book.

That's almost every election in U.S. history. I'd ratchet it up to 400 votes, myself.

I think the following qualify as "landslides"

1988 Bush (426) Dukakis (111)
1984 Reagan (526) Mondale (13)
1980 Reagan (489) Carter (49)
1972 Nixon (520) McGovern (17)
1964 Johnson (486) Goldwater (52)
1956 Eisenhower (457) Stevenson (73)
1952 Eisenhower (442) Stevenson (89)
1944 Roosevelt (432) Dewey (99)
1940 Roosevelt (449) Wilkie (82)
1936 Roosevelt (523) Landon (8)
1932 Roosevelt (472) Hoover (59)
1928 Hoover (444) Smith (87)
1920 Harding (404) Cox (127)
1912 Wilson (435) Roosevelt (88)
After this, the fewer number of electors means that really anything over 200 is a landslide.
1872 Grant (286 Hendricks (42)
1868 Grant (214) Seymour (80)
1864 Lincoln (212) McClellan (21)
1852 Pierce (254) Scott (42)
1840 Harrison (234) Van Buren (60)
1832 Jackson (219) Clay (49)
1820 Monroe (231) Adams (1)
1816 Monroe (183) King (34)
1804 Jefferson (162) Pinckney (14)

[Sergio Zamora]

Boy, that Adams sure mastered the art of losing.

[Chris D]

Originally Posted by crawjo

That's almost every election in U.S. history. I'd ratchet it up to 400 votes, myself.

Yeah, I was thinking "400" and "300" came out of my fingers. Good catch, craw.

[GoodSpeak]

What % is a landslide?

Oh, that's easy.

For republicans it's any percentage of precints you can usurp with faulty voting equipment, a brother in the Governor's House, denial of black voters to vote OR a republican Supreme Court.

[It's multiple choice, you see.]


For the Demon-crats, however, there is no such distinction. They just got lucky or the immorality of our Nation caused it to happen.


[Demon-crats hate God and want to censor the Bible, you see...oh, I almost forgot...they want to take all your guns away, too.]

[Gary Sisco]

You won't see one in this election, so not to worry.

Reagan's "landslide" in 1980 was actually one in five eligible voters in the US. Of course, as usual, most stayed home.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

Reagan's "landslide" in 1980 was actually one in five eligible voters in the US. Of course, as usual, most stayed home.

Most will have the flu this year.