WOTE's (2nd) (as-Fun-as-a-Fact-Can-Be) Fact of the Day*

If 48 million votes were "perfectly" distributed, theoretically the presidency could be won with just 22% (48 out of 213 million) of the electorate's support. Twenty-two percent!


(As-Fun-as-a-Fact-Can-Be) Fact Courtesy of:

"How Much Is Your Vote Worth?" in yesterday's Times.


[When I was looking at the electoral map a few weeks ago, it occurred to me that there is no way California has "only" twenty times as many people as Wyoming or Alaska. I was going to write a quick entry about that particular flaw in the electoral college system (the others have been well-documented), but it looks like the Times beat me to it. They should really hire me, those guys.]


* Sort of like Harper’s Index, but even more funner.

WOTE's (as-Fun-as-a-Fact-Can-Be) Fact of the Day*

Back in the good old days -- i.e., before 1824 -- presidential candidates did not campaign for the job. As Jill Lepore writes, in a recent piece in The New Yorker, "In keeping with the tradition of the first five American Presidents, [John Quincy] Adams considered currying favor with voters to be beneath the dignity of the office, and believed that any man who craved the Presidency ought not to have it. Adams called this his Macbeth policy:

If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,
Without my stir.

Jackson's supporters leaned more toward Lady Macbeth's point of view. They had no choice but to stir: their candidate was, otherwise, unelectable. How they stirred has shaped American politics ever since."

No shit. In other words, we have Andrew Jackson to thank for all this crap we've endured the past 20+ months.


(As-Fun-as-a-Fact-Can-Be) Fact Courtesy of:

"Bound for Glory," by Jill Lepore, from the Oct. 20th New Yorker.


* Sort of like Harper’s Index, but even more funner.