Election Season
I love election time, and we are getting into the swing of it. Through Volokh, I found a link to Tom McMahon’s Guess The Presidential Election Year Quiz. That was interesting onto itself, but also pointed me to presidentelect.org, which is the sort of website in which I can lose a lot of time. After reading through enough elections, some people show up often enough that you think of them as friends. Like William Jennings Bryan and Grover Cleveland, and the Adams’s and Bushs. But I was still taken aback to when I realized that in addition to being soundly defeated running for President in 1952 and 1956, Adlai Ewing Stevenson was Bryan’s losing vice-presidential candidate in 1892 and 1900. This gives him a political life equivalent to that of the Mayor of Sunnydale. As it turns out, the latter was the grandfather of the former, and both of their predilections towards losing saved American kids a lot of confusion. But still, if you are planning a political dynasty and feel the need to give your presidents the same first and last name, at least give them a distinguishing middle name. Or two, so the next generation can split them up as an inheritance. (I wonder which Bush inherited ‘Herbert’?)
Their analysis of this year’s election is interesting as well. I can’t find anything to argue with, but then again I need to start following this more closely. I wonder about the leaning states, though. I have seen more of an indication that Kerry can pick up a New Mexico or Iowa than that Bush can pick up Washington or Minnesota. It is sure to be a surprise, particularly if they have the same writers who came up with last election’s cliffhanger.