"Home State Blues"

[SaveElmer]

Of the six leading Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, polls show that three could lose their home states in the general election if it were held today. Rudy Giuliani (R) trails the top Democrats in New York, John Edwards (D) loses to the top Republican candidates in North Carolina, and Mitt Romney (R) gets crushed by the top Democrats in Massachusetts.

In the 2000 election Al Gore was the first major party candidate to lose his home state in a presidential election since George McGovern in 1972. In fact only two candidates have ever lost their state of residence and gone on to win the White House -- the last time was Woodrow Wilson in 1916. Since no one has lost their state of residence and won the White House in over 90 years, could home state electability become an issue in the primaries?

http://politicalinsider.com/2007/06/home_state_blues.html

[William769]

1. Here they come!

:hide:

[ieoeja]

2. I love meaningful trends....

API - Is Wilson too effeminate to get elected?

No matter who gets the nod as the Democratic nominee for the Presidency, he will have history going against him as only one Democrat has been elected president since the Civil War, albeit twice in non-consecutive terms. One prospective nominee is trying to fly in the face of yet another trend, and it is his face that will do the flying.

Something else accomplished only once since the Civil War has been the election of a man who lacked the definitively masculine look presented by facial hair. If Democrats think to end the Republican lock on the White House in 1912, they would be better off nominating someone a little more masculine than Woodrow Wilson.


Good thing for Wilson his primary threats for the nomination, Champ Clark and Oscar Underwood, were clean shaven as well.

[Tejanocrat]

3. LOL!!! Illinois native HRC will get her "Home State Blues" in the primary!

[rinsd]

4. Psssstt this is for the general election and I think any Dem would win IL.

[Tejanocrat]

5. Psssstt, just between you and me, you have to win the primary before you get to the general election

[ElizabethDC]

6. Well, she hasn't lived there since she was 18

and, of course, Obama is doing well in his adopted home state, just like Hillary is doing well in her adopted home state.

[Tejanocrat]

7. Don't look at me. I'm not the one who brought up the sub-moronic "home state blues" meme

[ElizabethDC]

8. Well, Illinois is a home state to Hillary in a very different way than NC is to Edwards, etc.

Hillary hasn't lived in Illinois during any of her adult life. As a matter of fact, she lived in Arkansas the same amount of time that she lived in Illinois. Edwards, on the other hand, has lived in NC the vast majority of his life (as a child and as an adult). I think, when it comes to politics, it's your home as an adult that counts more because of the connections you form as an adult and as a politician.

[Tejanocrat]

9. I understand: what's sauce for the goose is not necessarily sauce for the gander. Right.

[ooga booga]

10. Whaddya think this is? Baseball?

It's a good point. I love Al Gore, but I'm still pissed that he didn't carry Tennessee. If he had he'd have won WITHOUT Florida! (Think about where we could be now!)

Anyway, as good as this little stat is, I don't think it'll have any real influence. There aren't enough nerdy baseball stat freaks like me to make it so. It's more of a post-election "what happened" kind of thing, I think.