Mark West
When impossible is possible
By Mark West
After 86 years of waiting, the city of Boston is celebrating as their Red Sox are the champions of Major League Baseball after their World Series sweep of my beloved Cardinals. As impressive as this feat is, I want to focus elsewhere this week. I want to deal with what happened the week before, when the Red Sox found themselves in an impossible situation against their arch-rivals, the New York Yankees.
In the best of seven series, the Red Sox trailed the Yankees, three games to none. Such a deficit had never been overcome in a best of seven series for a victory by any team in history. No more impossible situation could face a team like the Red Sox, especially knowing that they would have to win the series in New York of all places.
We all know the outcome. Red Sox came back to win the series, four games to three. Carried by the momentum from such an unprecedented occurrence, the Red Sox then, quite to my own dismay, dispatched with the St. Louis Cardinals to win the World Series. I am led by this to believe that this is the year that anything can happen.
Two compelling figures stand out to me as we enter the last days of this election. I'm not sure how much of an impact these two factors will have on the election, but I do believe that they are worth mentioning.
Not since Harry Truman, has an incumbent trailed in his re-election campaign at any point and still maintained the presidency. The similarities between Presidents Bush and Truman are striking to say the least. A first term surprisingly dominated by foreign policy, maintaining a strong appeal with the average citizen and challenged by a less than inspiring, yet experienced opponent from the northeast. Most remember the famous picture from Truman's upset re-election as he stood smiling and holding a paper with the headline that his opponent, Thomas Dewey, had won the election.
While the media may have gaffed in that projection, I'm fearful that the media in our day have come to grips with the persuasive power they possess and have passionately sought to swing this election into the category of President Bush's challenger. An example is the "missing" weapons story, which was "broke" by the New York Times earlier this week that Senator John Kerry jumped on without all of the evidence. We have discovered that these weapons have been "missing" since April of 2003! Why is that a story this week? Probably for the same reason that CBS was set to run the story on 60 Minutes this Sunday night. The elite media are attempting to influence voters toward the liberal element that they believe in. Just as Truman overcame such, I believe that Bush will succeed in overcoming it as well.
President Truman had and President Bush has a much more important enemy to fight than the opponent to their presidency. While Truman was beginning the shadow war against communism, Bush is beginning the shadow war against terrorism. I believe that the war on terrorism will win this election for President Bush. Most polls reveal that Americans, by double-digits, believe that the President is far more capable of waging an aggressive war against terrorism and of protecting their families from attack.
Never, in election history, has an incumbent won re-election after winning the presidency while losing the popular vote. Three times someone has become president without winning the popular vote. Zero times have that same someone been re-elected to a second term.
In 1824, John Quincy Adams (Republican) lost the popular vote by nearly 11 percent and trailed in the Electoral College by 15 electoral votes to Andrew Jackson (Democrat), yet became president by virtue of Congress. In a rematch, Jackson defeated Adams by more than 12 percent of the popular vote and by 95 electoral votes to capture the presidency en route to serving two terms as president.
In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) lost the popular vote by just over 3 percent but won the Electoral College by 1 vote over Samuel Tilden (Democrat). Hayes retired and James Garfield (Republican) maintained the White House for the Republican Party by winning the popular vote by 0.02 percent and the Electoral College by 59 votes over Winfield Hancock (Democrat). Garfield was assassinated after four months in office.
In 1888, Benjamin Harrison (Republican) lost the popular vote by 0.8 percent but won the Electoral College by 65 electoral votes over Grover Cleveland. In a rematch, Cleveland won the popular vote by just over 3 percent and the electoral college by 132 votes and went on to serve two terms as president, with a brief four year respite between them.
A lot of history stands between President Bush and re-election. He has trailed at times during this campaign; will he be a rarity, like Truman, and win in spite of having trailed? Will President Bush become the first president to have lost the popular vote to gain re-election? If he follows suit with the Red Sox, the impossible could be quite possible. Boston trailed three games to none; popular vote losing incumbent presidents have failed to have a second term three times in history. In a season that has seen the impossible become possible; I believe this season will produce another impossible victory on Tuesday.
© Mark West
After 86 years of waiting, the city of Boston is celebrating as their Red Sox are the champions of Major League Baseball after their World Series sweep of my beloved Cardinals. As impressive as this feat is, I want to focus elsewhere this week. I want to deal with what happened the week before, when the Red Sox found themselves in an impossible situation against their arch-rivals, the New York Yankees.
In the best of seven series, the Red Sox trailed the Yankees, three games to none. Such a deficit had never been overcome in a best of seven series for a victory by any team in history. No more impossible situation could face a team like the Red Sox, especially knowing that they would have to win the series in New York of all places.
We all know the outcome. Red Sox came back to win the series, four games to three. Carried by the momentum from such an unprecedented occurrence, the Red Sox then, quite to my own dismay, dispatched with the St. Louis Cardinals to win the World Series. I am led by this to believe that this is the year that anything can happen.
Two compelling figures stand out to me as we enter the last days of this election. I'm not sure how much of an impact these two factors will have on the election, but I do believe that they are worth mentioning.
Not since Harry Truman, has an incumbent trailed in his re-election campaign at any point and still maintained the presidency. The similarities between Presidents Bush and Truman are striking to say the least. A first term surprisingly dominated by foreign policy, maintaining a strong appeal with the average citizen and challenged by a less than inspiring, yet experienced opponent from the northeast. Most remember the famous picture from Truman's upset re-election as he stood smiling and holding a paper with the headline that his opponent, Thomas Dewey, had won the election.
While the media may have gaffed in that projection, I'm fearful that the media in our day have come to grips with the persuasive power they possess and have passionately sought to swing this election into the category of President Bush's challenger. An example is the "missing" weapons story, which was "broke" by the New York Times earlier this week that Senator John Kerry jumped on without all of the evidence. We have discovered that these weapons have been "missing" since April of 2003! Why is that a story this week? Probably for the same reason that CBS was set to run the story on 60 Minutes this Sunday night. The elite media are attempting to influence voters toward the liberal element that they believe in. Just as Truman overcame such, I believe that Bush will succeed in overcoming it as well.
President Truman had and President Bush has a much more important enemy to fight than the opponent to their presidency. While Truman was beginning the shadow war against communism, Bush is beginning the shadow war against terrorism. I believe that the war on terrorism will win this election for President Bush. Most polls reveal that Americans, by double-digits, believe that the President is far more capable of waging an aggressive war against terrorism and of protecting their families from attack.
Never, in election history, has an incumbent won re-election after winning the presidency while losing the popular vote. Three times someone has become president without winning the popular vote. Zero times have that same someone been re-elected to a second term.
In 1824, John Quincy Adams (Republican) lost the popular vote by nearly 11 percent and trailed in the Electoral College by 15 electoral votes to Andrew Jackson (Democrat), yet became president by virtue of Congress. In a rematch, Jackson defeated Adams by more than 12 percent of the popular vote and by 95 electoral votes to capture the presidency en route to serving two terms as president.
In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) lost the popular vote by just over 3 percent but won the Electoral College by 1 vote over Samuel Tilden (Democrat). Hayes retired and James Garfield (Republican) maintained the White House for the Republican Party by winning the popular vote by 0.02 percent and the Electoral College by 59 votes over Winfield Hancock (Democrat). Garfield was assassinated after four months in office.
In 1888, Benjamin Harrison (Republican) lost the popular vote by 0.8 percent but won the Electoral College by 65 electoral votes over Grover Cleveland. In a rematch, Cleveland won the popular vote by just over 3 percent and the electoral college by 132 votes and went on to serve two terms as president, with a brief four year respite between them.
A lot of history stands between President Bush and re-election. He has trailed at times during this campaign; will he be a rarity, like Truman, and win in spite of having trailed? Will President Bush become the first president to have lost the popular vote to gain re-election? If he follows suit with the Red Sox, the impossible could be quite possible. Boston trailed three games to none; popular vote losing incumbent presidents have failed to have a second term three times in history. In a season that has seen the impossible become possible; I believe this season will produce another impossible victory on Tuesday.
© Mark West
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