The Law of 14

[Duder]

According to the "Law of 14," Jonathan Rauch says "only four candidates have a shot next year. They are President Bush, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. The rest are history."

The reason? "With only one exception since the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, no one has been elected president who took more than 14 years to climb from his first major elective office to election as either president or vice president." Of the major candidates, Rep. Dick Gephardt and Sens. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman "have expired."

http://www.reason.com/rauch/101703.shtml

[wyldwolf]

1. I posted this about a week ago... the mods locked it because...

..he/she said it was a rightwing source.

[JohnKleeb]

2. You can use any unique thing from history and use it against a candiate

and his or her's chances
For example I will exclude Dean and Kerry from being able to win simply because a New Englandher hasnt won since 1960.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

6. There has never been a President whose name started with 'D'

It's like a curse -- every Presidential candidate in history whose name starts with 'D' - has lost.

[JohnKleeb]

8. Dwight Eisenhower

:) you can do that for a lot of shit too.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

11. Umm, I meant the last name...

[Mairead]

7. Exactly. Well said, John

And you'll notice that when someone brings up something like this, their candidate is never included in the 'dud' list. :evilgrin:

[drfemoe]

5. It says it is

libertarian ... They do have an endorsement from Rush ... and an article saying it's no one's business if he wanted to take all those pills . lol . pretty lib ..

what a trippy planet we inhabit .. :freak:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. Oddly,

that fits my own opinion of how the race shakes out. Dean, a surprising Edwards, and Clark.

[alexwcovington]

4. This is a clear case

of making up a hypothesis and twisting the data to support it.

Just not scientific.

[Duder]

9. Here's another odd one...

DANIEL DEBOWY & ERIC SCHULMAN - We present an algorithm for determining the winners of United States presidential elections, based on the previous experience of the major party candidates for President and Vice President. The algorithm correctly determines the winner of each of the 54 U.S. presidential elections between 1789 and 2000. Our algorithm predicts that President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney will win the 2004 election unless:

- the Democratic nominee for President is Howard B. Dean,

- the Democratic nominee for President is Wesley K. Clark and the Democratic nominee for Vice President has been Vice President for at least two years, a governor for at least five years, or a U.S. Representative for at least five years,

- the Democratic nominee for President is Richard A. Gephardt and the Democratic nominee for Vice President is a banker, a college or university chancellor or president, or the child of a U.S. Senator, or

- the Democratic nominee for Vice President is Albert A. Gore, Jr. or John D. Rockefeller, IV, and the Democratic nominee for President has not been divorced, has not been a special prosecutor, and is a Protestant, Deist, or Catholic.

http://members.bellatlantic.net/%7Evze3fs8i/air/Elections.htm

[Freddie Stubbs]

10. It is certainy a trend, but not a law

There has been a trend in recent years to elect only those who have served as Governor of a state or as Vice President. You have to go back over 40 since someone who had not held one of these offices has been elected as President.