Decision ‘08

Scholars For Obama

Do presidential historians know anymore about elections in progress than the average Joe? It’s an iffy proposition - but if they do, then John McCain is in trouble, according to this article:

One week into the general election, the polls show a dead heat. But many presidential scholars doubt that John McCainstands much of a chance, if any.

Historians belonging to both parties offered a litany of historical comparisons that give little hope to the Republican. Several saw Barack Obama’s prospects as the most promising for a Democrat since Roosevelt trounced Hoover in 1932.

“This should be an overwhelming Democratic victory,” said Allan Lichtman, an American University presidential historian who ran in a Maryland Democratic senatorial primary in 2006. Lichtman, whose forecasting model has correctly predicted the last six presidential popular vote winners, predicts that this year, “Republicans face what have always been insurmountable historical odds.” His system gives McCain a score on par with Jimmy Carter’s in 1980.

“McCain shouldn’t win it,” said presidential historian Joan Hoff, a professor at Montana State University and former president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency. She compared McCain’s prospects to those of Hubert Humphrey, whose 1968 loss to Richard Nixon resulted in large part from the unpopularity of sitting Democratic president Lyndon Johnson.

“It is one of the worst political environments for the party in power since World War II,” added Alan Abramowitz, a professor of public opinion and the presidency at Emory University. His forecasting model — which factors in gross domestic product, whether a party has completed two terms in the White House and net presidential approval rating — gives McCain about the same odds as Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and Carter in 1980 — both of whom were handily defeated in elections that returned the presidency to the previously out-of-power party. “It would be a pretty stunning upset if McCain won,” Abramowitz said.

What’s more, Republicans have held the presidency for all but 12 years since the South became solidly Republican in the realignment of 1968 — which is among the longest runs with one party dominating in American history. “These things go in cycles,” said presidential historian Robert Dallek, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. “The public gets tired of one approach to politics. There is always a measure of optimism in this country, so they turn to the other party.”

I don’t really disagree with any of the above…but of course, it’s a long time until November, and ultimately, the voters will choose. I’ll take an early stab at odds: Obama a 10-7 favorite…

2 Responses to “Scholars For Obama”

1 Ryan Says:
June 16th, 2008 at 9:23 am
The only thing keeping McCain afloat is his maddening ability to convince everyone he’s not really a Republican. The GOP definitely made the shrewdest choice available.
2 too many steves Says:
June 16th, 2008 at 10:55 am
We couldn’t have planned for a better choice than that of Obama and McCain.