The 2012 presidential election has obviously come and gone, but before we move on entirely, there's a little tidbit of statistical trivia that struck me as interesting -- and chart worthy.
Bloomberg reports today that, thanks to some provisional ballots that have now been counted in New York City, President Obama's popular-vote total is up to 51.06%. That wouldn't be especially interesting, were it not for the fact that Obama is the first presidential candidate since Dwight Eisenhower to top 51% twice.
In fact, in American history, this is a feat that's only been pulled off by six presidents: Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and now, Barack Obama.
In case you're wondering if Reagan made the cut, he came close, but ended up with 50.7% in 1980. Plenty of other candidates might have had a better shot at this, were it not for third-party candidates.
Also, though Obama's popular-vote win on election night seemed quite narrow, it's now grown to about four percentage points (and roughly 5 million votes), which is a pretty comfortable margin of victory.
We can debate the utility and value of electoral "mandates," but if they mean anything, Obama has earned enough public backing to have Congress take his agenda seriously.
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Behold! The awesome power of ACORN. Assisted by the New Black Panther Party. (And driven to the polls in Welfare Caddilacs.)
Witness the failure of gun toting, Obama bashing, wannabe rich, FOX watching Tea Partiers.
Beware though as angry white folk tire of giving their money away to poor people! Well until they realize they are among the poor themselves.
FYI ACORN hasn't existed for quite awhile now. You need to check your facts before blowing smoke, or quit making up your own.
That was sarcasm, methinks
Must be sarcasm, I think only really ignorant people think that ACORN which doesn't even exist anymore to have anything to do... the power of the millions given to the Republican party did not work to buy the votes they thought they were getting, I guess since voting is private, lots of people said they were voting for the lier Mitt and at the poles decided against it.
I really hope it was sarcasm, although I am sure there are plenty of morons that think that the organization that hasn't existed for some time has something to do with it.
WRONG DAY-3905329, Acorn DID NOT EXIST during the 2012 election.
Further, you obviously don't abide by the teachings of Jesus Christ. The welfare stereotype you spew is disgusting. The FACT is that 86% of MEDICAID $$$ goes to: the blind, handicapped, seniors and children living in poverty. You are either for Freedom for All Americans or against Freedom for All Americans. You sir, seem to believe that freedom is only for a limited few.
It was Day and it was sarcasm.
It's comments and attitudes like yours that keep OUR country divided. Get help for your problem (DAY-3905329).
You guys should read this comment boards more often, I'm a lurker and I know DAY's comment was political sarcasm, a jab at the extreme right and their delusional thinking.
I usually avoid the comments on boards due to the ignorance a few spew. I'm sure others do as well, and if sarcasm, how is anyone to know? Just sayin'.
Whilst pursuing the Maddow Comment Board, I've only found one real tried, true and very persistant fellow here who completely spews ignorance on a common basis. It's actually pretty unique on a day to day basis, unless it's a very hot topic. Because I'm a reading lurker I've just gotten to know who's being sarcastic and who isn't, not to blame anyone. :)
By the by DAY-3905329...
You are clearly a well educated and thoughtful person. You do realize ARCON was driven out of existence by the insulting false video put together by O'Keefe and Giles and was found to be nothing more than a concocted hatchet job. Your racist dimwitted comments carry on in that tradition. The only consolation is what a great President we have for the next four years and how much that must piss you off. Keep up with the racist rightwing BS, you and your buddies are onto something. See you at the next election Goober.
Note:
The California Attorney General granted immunity to O'Keefe and Giles in exchange for their raw videos shot at three California ACORN offices. Its comparison of the raw videos with the released versions found that the published videos had been heavily edited to misrepresent the workers and the situations so as to suggest criminal intent and activity. The California r,eport was followed by one by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which reported there was no evidence that ACORN workers had misused government funds or participated in the criminal activities represented in the videos. But, ACORN was effectively destroyed by then.
Really? Wasn't it multiple state Republican Parties that were caught tearing up voter registration forms shortly before the election, and therefor violating voter rights and committing the voter fraud that they were accusing other people of doing?
And actually volunteers drove voters to the polls...with their own vehicles, time, and money. Dumbass.
Congrats to the President for the achievement: American voters are not as stupid as I had feared they might be.
Obama was also the first president candidate to be re-elected with FEWER votes the second time, than the first time since FDR in 1940. President Obama got over 3 1/2 million FEWER votes this election than last.
Know who else got way fewer votes than Obama?
Your candidate.
Your causes.
Your ballot measures.
Your Congressional candidates.
Reality, what a concept.
The turnout was also 13 million votes lower, and Romney received fewer votes than John McCain....
Reminds me of how I made my first "political report" in 1960 in my elementary school, reporting that "Nixon had won in Utah."
I'll plead age as my excuse for that one; what's yours Donny?
St. Cabbie, the post seem to be praising Obama for such an achievement and that it must mean he has unprecedented support. I was pointing out that there is just as much evidence that enthusiasm for President Obama is less now than before his first term.
51.06% is not a mandate, it is a majority. Yet, a thin majority. Obama won an emotional, ideaological victory on tax increases on those making $400-450 thousand a year. He should learn he can't go to this well again. He must face spending cuts and the so called entitlements. We cannot sustain a 16 trillion and rising debt.
It is true. President Obama is the only one on that graph to lose popular support in terms of percentage of the vote and still win re-election, and it's not because his original margin of victory was amazing, either.
Personally, I take this as further evidence of just how much the Republican party keeps tripping over itself, damaging its image with self inflicted wound after self inflicted wound, going out of its way to defy demographic trends, constantly retreating from the mainstream middle to embrace the far right instead. And then they wonder what went wrong? They wonder why they lose?
President Obama was vulnerable. He was beatable. But Mitt Romney was a terrible candidate. He mainly won the nomination because his primary competition was so laughable. And the 112th Congress may go down in history as the worst legislative body America has ever seen, largely thanks to Mitch McConnell filibustering everything and the tea party house caucus's dedication to preventing the government from doing anything, ever. With the state of the Republican party today, even if you don't particularly like President Obama, there is simply no alternative.
Not George Washington?
Actually we have witnessed the awesome power of promising free stuff.
Bribery is corruption, and Democrats are all about bribery. Ergo, Democrats are all about corruption. See Chicago for confirmation.
Nice try pooter. You still lost.
That "free stuff" -- i.e. government services, support, and contracts -- is also known as, um, "government." As it turns out, Shoot, your party does the exact same thing, only not as well. Y'all give lots and lots of free stuff to a handful of corporations and really rich people who don't need it. We give a little government help to millions of working Americans to ensure that being "American" means having a certain civilized minimum standard of living. If your side can't figure out why the electoral math on that one isn't working out so well for you, you don't deserve to be governing in the first place.
Imagine giving "free stuff" to people, instead of to corporations. Especially when it's "free stuff" that people already paid for, like Social Security benefits and unemployment compensation. What a concept!
Ah the imaginary free stuff that people that voted for Obama get. Yeah that line works for morons but honestly I don't get why Romney would try using it on billionaires who know better.
Romney ran on nothing but lower tax rates for the wealthy, how is anyone shocked that he lost?
DANG! I'm still waiting for my package of free stuff to show up!
Does anyone have that FedEx tracking number? I really need to find out where it is!
I'll bet it got mis-delivered to that damn Teapublican neighbor of mine!!!!!!!
Where is all this "free stuff" I keep hearing about?
All this free stuff? Where is mine? I don't know a single person who got "free stuff" in return for voting for Obama---unless "free stuff" means getting a president who is intelligent and understands how to help our nation recover from repub stupidity instead of a candidate who changed his viewpoint from day to day and according to his family, didn't even want to be president.
There are two kinds of Obama voter... those that want free stuff and those that want to give it to them.
For those complaining that corporations are getting all the free stuff you're looking in the wrong direction. have you already forgotten Solyndra and every other green giveaway? How about the nationalization of GM and the handover to the UAW? Consider all the money handed over to Wall St, not to mention the protection of the DOJ. Does no one find it curious no one has been prosecuted for the financial crisis?
Then we have the Obama tax cuts. When they were the Bush tax cuts, they were the single largest cause of financial deficit spending. But now that they are the Obama tax cuts, they are wonderful the deficit be damned.
Which reminds me. When the inevitable wailing about paying the bills comes with the debt crisis, let me remind you all about the bill that will never be paid... our debt.
Now on to ridding our nation of gerrymandered districts that allow republicans to ignore these truths they find self-incriminating.
Amen! I am disgusted that despite a decisive Presidential win, the Reps retained the House solely because of gerrymandering. Which, of course, leaves us with the same mess we've dealt with since 2010--ignoring the will of the people and threatening default on national debts. :-/
I'm not surprised. Especially when he lost every state that had voter ID laws. Or how 71 counties had more votes for Obama than registered voters period. Hispanics and poor Blacks made up more of the vote than what was counted. It's evident. Just because Americans are mislead, and use God to their convenience, doesn't make it right! We had slavery for 400 years and that was the social norm. Didn't make it just. I pray congress keeps his pro-Islam, anti-Christian, successful people hate mongering self limited through his second term. Until then, we can only pray.
Your talking points would make more sense if you separated them by paragraph--each with a thesis statement. As it is, they nullify one another.
You are clearly ignorant or just trolling.
OK. Give us so links to these facts, Sweetie. I'm sure you can do that. Right?
Jeffery-
Please supply reference to your data. Methinks thou art full of it. Never seen any of that data. But maybe the "lamestream media" is just suppressing it, ya?
Oh, and "pro-Islam, anti-Christian, successful people hate mongering self"? Seriously? Are people on the right STILL peddling this crap? Oh yeah, of course they are! And sheeple like you continue to believe it, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Cognititive Dissonance is Knowledge
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
silly post. Obama bested Reagan by a few tenths of a percent in one of two elections. his popularity rose, unlike Obama's. I'm not a fan of Reagan but you are cherry picking data for a very uninteresting and unnecessary post.....Slow news day?
The facts are the facts. The number Obama posted twice was bigger than Reagan's and many others. What -- you gonna say that number should be invalidated because it was only slightly larger than Reagan's or whoever? And don't lie, you are one of the repub resentful fact polishers...
And for you Jeffrey upthread, I don't know what to say about you. 71 countries had what? You make no sense -- your logic is incomprehensible. Have no idea what points you were trying to make but maybe you should pray for yourself.
I would bet that if Jeffrey could point to 71 such counties, they would all be in states that allow election day registration.
So, his point is -- in 71 counties on election day more votes were cast that there were registered voters the day before election day. But, I would add, NOT the day after election day. It was all legal.
Of course he can't see that.
I've never figured out how a certain segment of people hate Obama this much. I havent seen anything like it. So many made up conspiracies and old wives tales. He's a communist, born in another country, he is an extremist muslim, the antichrist, it goes on and on. What has the guy done but honestly tried to do what he thinks best for the country, meanwhile other politicians , who we know have lied through their teeth, been involved in scandal after scandal and big business trying to get away with murder are treated as OK in their book. Is it a cooincidence that he happens to be the first black president ever trying to deal with a congress that is overwhelmingly old and white? I am the last to toss the race card but I cannot find anything else.
Michael - I have tried and tried to figure this out too. It seems quite a number of people really really hate Obama. Of course it's possible - likely - that some of them are truly racist; it's in some people's upbringing and they just can't help it. Others may just dislike him because let's face it - he's good looking, very intelligent, personable, confident, and successful. Some people can't stand when someone else gets ahead, even if they deserve to.
I try to give as much credence as I can to the latter of those two possibilities.
But then one day I realized - if Obama had all the same exact characteristics as he does...but he were white...the hatred of him by some would not be nearly as strong. Perhaps even nonexistent. He could well be the most popular President in our history if only he were white.
And no, saying that does NOT make me a racist.
Don't forget the garbage spewing faux entertainment, of beck, hannity, o'really, and company. The low information people who never hear anything other than the rethug, t-thugs talking points. Actually very scary to think these people are so easily manipulated. limpdick and pecker head and their ilk laughing all the way to the bank. These past 6 yrs have truly exposed the bigots and racists. 2014 time to clean out the rest of the house.
Linda - I've thought a time or two that if I really wanted to get wealthy, all I would have to do would be to spout extreme right-wing views, feign some outrage, conjure up some crazy theories about progressives (although I'd use a stronger term, like 'communists'), and belittle anyone who disagrees with me. I could be the next Rush, whether I believe all that crap or not.
But then I realize I have a brain and a conscience, and too many others have already figured out how to gain wealth and popularity among fools.
Hey Bloomberg (and by association MSNBC for touting it).... I'm a HUGE Obama supporter, but this really is a bit weak. You couldn't have just said he's the first to get +50% since Reagan? You had to pick the completely arbitrary number 51 just to make it appear slightly more impressive? (Woohoo!! He beat it by 0.06%!! Yay!!) Stats like this are Fox-worthy and below your standards. I expect better from those intelligent enough to know the difference.
Landslide and mandate = confirmed.
Rachel, I'd take it as a compliment that the white supremacy movement seems to be avid readers of your blog.
Today's announcement should make Nate Silver again sit up straighter, since he was in the crosshairs of the hate engine as the election drew near.
Like all of us, I listened to the "landslide" predictions of Examiner.com, the two Colorado professors (so much for their perfect record), Dick Morris. Like many, I got the unwelcome emails and chainletters. Funny, that the two Colorado professors quoted in several actually predicted the win accurately, albeit for the wrong candidate. Ironic, that Obama's actual win was in excess of some "Romney landslide" predictions; yet, the "L" word has yet to escape Republican lips...
Amidst all the sneering and ridicule, Nate Silver soldiered on. Of course, by the evening of Nov 6th, Nate's detractors looked pretty ridiculous. The brainy quiet guy stood tall, as the dinosaurs inched one step closer to their tar pit graves. A good day for our nation, a great day for democracy.
Nate Silver is a libertarian not a democrat, he doesn't vote and his system is too complicated for the average moron from the tea party to understand....math. Thats it, he uses the data to plug it into a statistical formula. While all the other pundits used instincts, gut and in many cases irrational wishful thinking to make their guesses.
This is significant causeless it was done in a down turned economy and high underemployment I believe the Republican party has misread the American People and they realize that spending cuts and austerity is not the answer, I believe Paul Krugman Economic philosophy of the need to spend to create economic wealth is valid. What it will take is passing a jobs bill like the American Jobs Act as was proposed by Obama over a year ago. We need to create and seed jobs to allow the Middle Class to have disposable income to purchase and cause the dollar to turn overl and over. A dollar turning over is a working dollar and generates revenue through sales tax for the states. We must be bold and creative to think outside the box. But only disposable income in the hands of the middle class will pull us out of a stagnate economy.
"We can debate the utility and value of electoral "mandates," but if they mean anything, Obama has earned enough public backing to have Congress take his agenda seriously."
What I want is for OBAMA to insist Congress take his agenda seriously and not compromise it away.
5 MILLION votes says WE the people chose the right man for the job. WE THE PEOPLE , a majority , a mandate . WE WON ! The easily manipulated , t thugs and your policies lost.
This blog is too easily trolled. I have gotten to a point where I don't even want to read the comments anymore because they're populated by trolls and the overzealous people feeding them.
Pac-Man?
Fran speaks truly.
I think you are mostly stupid kool-aide drinkers. Obama won. Our country lost. Romney wasn't a good choice by far, but anyone would be better as Liar In Chief. He won because he appeals to young people and because, yep, he's black. Popular vote consists of black and latino votes as well as Hollywood @!$%#s. So, he lied about healthcare and taxes and every@!$%#ingthingelse. Hope you are happy..................................
Yes, ecstatic! :)
.
Thank goodness people actually voted, despite long lines and paperwork hassles.
I think what is more interesting is the fact that Obama's numbers show one of the only instances when the popular vote in favor of the president has decreased from the previous election.
People were faced with a choice one an Intelligent and honorable although flawed candidate and party that generally sides with humans and a group of mental patients in suits headed by a guy who thought MacDonalds was a Scottish drill team
easy choice
ACORN, the new black panther party, welfare Cadillacs? My god someone is REALLY STOOPID!
How can you recognize sarcasm? Maybe by the ridiculousness of the references: not only ACORN and the New Black Panthers, but even welfare Cadillacs, which goes back to Reagan. But since some liberals apparently are literal-minded or lack a sense of humor, maybe we can agree on some kind of symbol or icon to indicate sarcasm, to save the energy expended in clueless indignation and name-calling.
Really? Wasn't it multiple state Republican Parties that were caught tearing up voter registration forms shortly before the election, and therefor violating voter rights and committing the voter fraud that they were accusing other people of doing?