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The good Dr. post some interesting numbers related to wartime elections.

<snip>

No wartime president has lost an election. Following are the victory percentages for each wartime election in the 20th-21st Century

World War 1
Woodrow Wilson won by 3.1 %

World War 2
Franklin D. Roosevelt won by 9.9 %

Korean War
Dwight D. Eisenhower won by 10.5%

Vietnam War
* John F. Kennedy won by .2 %
Lyndon B. Johnson won by 22.6%
Richard M. Nixon won by .7 %
Richard M. Nixon won by 23.2 %

Iraq War
George W. Bush won by 3%

Bush had the lowest percentage of any wartime presidential victory, except for Richard Nixon's victory in 1968 over Hubert H. Humphrey. The closeness of the election during World War 1 can be attributed to the unpopularity of that war, due to a significant number of german immigrants in the US and a sweeping sense of isolationism.

Vietnam was probably the most unpopular war, and Nixon probably the most unpopular president in history, and that can account for Nixons close race, but what does that tell us about Bush and Iraq?

* - Not really a war yet, more of an "gulf of tonkin affair"

Sources:
Encyclopedia Britannica
CNN

</snip>

This doesn't explain the loss of seats in the house or the senate, and the gay marriage bans for that matter, but interesting non the less.

tags: politics,  terror,  war
wartime elections, fun with numbers November 4, 2004