Comments on: Why 2008 Election Results Herald a New America http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/why-2008-election-results-herald-a-new-america.html An Independent Netzine About Ideas Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:20:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: liberalamerican http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/why-2008-election-results-herald-a-new-america.html/comment-page-1#comment-10860 liberalamerican Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:37:21 +0000 http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/?p=1367#comment-10860 I think somehow your comment became attached to the wrong post so I took the liberty of moving it here where the sentence you mention occurs. Hope you don't mind. As for the comment, technically you are right, but the Lincoln example is a bit of stretch since people of color could not vote at the time. JFK actually did win 50% of the popular vote but only 49% of the white vote. I apologize for this mistake because many years ago I researched the impact of the African American Vote on Kennedy's election. Although no one kept data on it at the time, I suspect Woodrow Wilson also won with the aid of the African American vote in the three candidate 1912 election, but he did not receive 50% of the popular vote. Correction duly noted and made. I think somehow your comment became attached to the wrong post so I took the liberty of moving it here where the sentence you mention occurs. Hope you don’t mind.

As for the comment, technically you are right, but the Lincoln example is a bit of stretch since people of color could not vote at the time. JFK actually did win 50% of the popular vote but only 49% of the white vote. I apologize for this mistake because many years ago I researched the impact of the African American Vote on Kennedy’s election. Although no one kept data on it at the time, I suspect Woodrow Wilson also won with the aid of the African American vote in the three candidate 1912 election, but he did not receive 50% of the popular vote.

Correction duly noted and made.

]]> By: George Hannauer http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/why-2008-election-results-herald-a-new-america.html/comment-page-1#comment-10859 George Hannauer Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:30:28 +0000 http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/?p=1367#comment-10859 You stated “The first person to be elected President with a minority of the white vote was Bill Clinton in 1992. ” Sorry. Simply not true. Lincoln was elected with less than 40% of the popular vote, which was virtually all-white at that time. A hundred years later, Kennedy won with less that 50% of the popular vote. Since the nonwhite vote went mostly fo Democrats at that time, it’s a fair guess that he got less than half the white vote. There may be other examples, but these two leap immediately to mind. I agree with most of the analysis in your post, but I just couldn’t let that error slip by. You stated
“The first person to be elected President with a minority of the white vote was Bill Clinton in 1992. ”

Sorry. Simply not true. Lincoln was elected with less than 40% of the popular vote, which was virtually all-white at that time. A hundred years later, Kennedy won with less that 50% of the popular vote. Since the nonwhite vote went mostly fo Democrats at that time, it’s a fair guess that he got less than half the white vote. There may be other examples, but these two leap immediately to mind.

I agree with most of the analysis in your post, but I just couldn’t let that error slip by.

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