(no subject)
One thing I will never quite understand is why people talk landslide when the projected margins aren't actually of a landslide scale.
I mean, the last two elections, people on certain boards I frequent were talking about how it was a "landslide victory", when, if you really look at the numbers, they were both the smallest margins of victory in a presidential election back to at least the year I was born.
And this morning, I saw an article from a paper in a foreign country talking about 'early election results show landslide for Obama' when it's pretty obvious that it's not nearly time to be talking about early election results ... I mean, east coast precincts don't close for how many more hours?
And Gallup on Monday said 53-42% Obama, and that's supposed to be a landslide, according to various articles I'm looking at now.
Come on, news media people. The 1980 election wasn't a landslide because of the voting percentage (which was actually fairly narrow, 50% -> 41%), but because Reagan took 90% of the electoral votes. The 1984 election was similarly a landslide because of electoral vote percentage, not popular vote percentages. There hasn't really been an election since that's a "landslide" on that scale (although the 1988 election came close)
So I think it's sort of silly to talk 'landslide' at the moment. Just do me a favor and wait, you know?
I mean, the last two elections, people on certain boards I frequent were talking about how it was a "landslide victory", when, if you really look at the numbers, they were both the smallest margins of victory in a presidential election back to at least the year I was born.
And this morning, I saw an article from a paper in a foreign country talking about 'early election results show landslide for Obama' when it's pretty obvious that it's not nearly time to be talking about early election results ... I mean, east coast precincts don't close for how many more hours?
And Gallup on Monday said 53-42% Obama, and that's supposed to be a landslide, according to various articles I'm looking at now.
Come on, news media people. The 1980 election wasn't a landslide because of the voting percentage (which was actually fairly narrow, 50% -> 41%), but because Reagan took 90% of the electoral votes. The 1984 election was similarly a landslide because of electoral vote percentage, not popular vote percentages. There hasn't really been an election since that's a "landslide" on that scale (although the 1988 election came close)
So I think it's sort of silly to talk 'landslide' at the moment. Just do me a favor and wait, you know?