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NFL's Redskins Presidential Predictor Since 1933, when the Boston Braves were renamed the Redskins, the result of the team's final home game before the presidential election has always correctly predicted the White House winner.
If the Redskins win, the incumbent party wins. If they lose, the incumbent party is ousted.
An election-by-election recap:
_1936: Redskins (in final year in Boston) defeated Chicago Cardinals 13-10 on Nov. 1. Franklin Roosevelt won re-election over Alf Landon on Nov. 3.
_1940: Redskins defeated Pittsburgh Pirates 37-10 on Nov. 3. Roosevelt won re-election over Wendell Willkie on Nov. 5.
_1944: Redskins defeated Cleveland Rams 14-10 on Nov. 5. Roosevelt won re-election over Thomas Dewey on Nov. 7.
_1948: Redskins defeated Boston Yanks 59-21 on Oct. 31. Incumbent Harry Truman (who assumed office after Roosevelt's death) defeated Dewey on Nov. 2.
_1952: Redskins lost to Pittsburgh Steelers 24-23 on Nov. 2. Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson on Nov. 4, returning the Republicans to the White House for the first time in 20 years.
_1956: Redskins defeated Cleveland Browns 20-9 on Oct. 21. Eisenhower won re-election over Stevenson on Nov. 6.
_1960: Redskins lost to Cleveland Browns 31-10 on Oct. 30. John Kennedy defeated vice president Richard Nixon on Nov. 8.
_1964: Redskins defeated Chicago Bears 27-20 on Oct. 25. Lyndon Johnson (who assumed office after Kennedy's death) defeated Barry Goldwater on Nov. 3.
_1968: Redskins lost to New York Giants 13-10 on Oct. 27. Nixon defeated Hubert Humphrey on Nov. 5.
_1972: Redskins defeated Dallas Cowboys 24-20 on Oct. 22. Nixon won re-election over George McGovern on Nov. 7.
_1976: Redskins lost to Dallas Cowboys 20-7 on Oct. 31. Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford (who assumed office after Nixon's resignation) on Nov. 2.
_1980: Redskins lost to Minnesota Vikings 39-14 on Nov. 2. Ronald Reagan unseated Carter on Nov. 4.
_1984: Redskins defeated Atlanta Falcons 27-14 on Nov. 5. Reagan won re-election over Walter Mondale on Nov. 6.
_1988: Redskins defeated New Orleans Saints 27-24 on Nov. 6. Vice president George Bush defeated Michael Dukakis on Nov. 8.
_1992: Redskins lost to New York Giants 24-7 on Nov. 1. Bill Clinton unseated Bush on Nov. 3.
_1996: Redskins defeated Indianapolis Colts 31-16 on Oct. 27. Clinton won re-election over Bob Dole on Nov. 5.
_2000: Redskins lost to Tennessee Titans 27-21 on Oct. 30. George W. Bush defeated Al Gore on Nov. 7.
_2004: Redskins host Green Bay Packers on Sunday. Bush faces John Kerry on Tuesday. Green Bay Wins: 28-14
What will happen now? Will the longest running presidential predictor end with this 2004 election or will it continue?
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this sways the cosmic balance. Kerry will be victorious! Homestarrunner forever!~!
http://www.homestarrunner.com/20x6vs1936.html
http://www.homestarrunner.com/cheatvideo.html
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I hope the predictor still works, but in a year in which the Red Sox wins the World Series (also viewed as a good omen in MA), and more important (to me!), a US fencer wins Olympic gold, who can predict anything? "In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice, theory and practice are different."
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_2000: Redskins lost to Tennessee Titans 27-21 on Oct. 30. George W. Bush defeated Al Gore on Nov. 7.
_your not bitter at all are you?
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Why did you point that last one out specifically?
And, no, I'm not particularly 'bitter'. I'm alot of things, but I don't think I would describe my feelings about the 2000 election as being bitter.
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It's true: the pattern holds. But here's snopes' commentary:
"Our desire to understand and assert some control over the world around us is often manifested by our attempts to find predictive signs that enable us to prognosticate events — even when there is no seeming connection between predictor and event. Sometimes one natural phenomenon supposedly forecasts another, as in the belief that a groundhog's seeing his shadow on February 2 portends another six weeks of winter. In other instances the linkage is between affairs of mankind, as in the superstition that the winner of football's Super Bowl augurs that year's stock market performance (or vice-versa)....
What do we make of all this? Nothing. We see it as coincidence, as evidence that anyone who tries long and hard enough can find apparent patterns in any collection of data."
In other words, correlation does not imply causation. ( And in any case there have not been enough data points to make the pattern statistically significant yet. )
Here's another such pattern: since 1840 every President elected in twenty-year elections ( years ending in zero ) has died in office, with the exception of Reagan, elected in 1980---and he was very nearly killed in an assassination attempt.
But---W was elected in 2000, twenty years after Reagan and in a year ending in zero. No assassination attempts, no sign of ill health. He seems to have "broken" the pattern. Perhaps he'll make it two? 
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A run of such coincidences is entertaining, but as Yogi Berra might have said, they only go until they stop.
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AND
It's all just in good clean fun.
Last edited by Maeve_Mari; 11-01-2004 at 09:48 AM.
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 Originally Posted by Inquartata But---W was elected in 2000, twenty years after Reagan and in a year ending in zero. No assassination attempts, no sign of ill health. He seems to have "broken" the pattern. Perhaps he'll make it two? There was the pretzel incident. It bears mentioning as it was an "almost", akin to Regan's shooting (only with no firearms or any really dangerous variable).
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Din Älskling
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Originally Posted by Inquartata I
Here's another such pattern: since 1840 every President elected in twenty-year elections ( years ending in zero ) has died in office, with the exception of Reagan, elected in 1980---and he was very nearly killed in an assassination attempt.
But---W was elected in 2000, twenty years after Reagan and in a year ending in zero. No assassination attempts, no sign of ill health. He seems to have "broken" the pattern. Perhaps he'll make it two? By your own admission, the pattern was broken with Reagan. Very nearly killed is not the same as killed. If it was, you could say that the Redskins were very nearly beaten (take one touchdown from Redskins put it into the opponent's colymn) so Bush should win. Doesn't work so well... "Since when does being a patriot in America mean shutting your mouth?"
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zz,zz,zz,zz,zz,zz!
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Originally Posted by Inquartata But---W was elected in 2000, twenty years after Reagan and in a year ending in zero. No assassination attempts, no sign of ill health. He seems to have "broken" the pattern. Perhaps he'll make it two? Perhaps his performance hasn't yet qualified him as presidential enough to be considered part of the jinx. It might have been his going-in strategy to break the chain by not letting those bad guys know he's there!
 my comments are only all in good clean fun. The 20-year assasination chain is one that I would like to see broken for good.
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When I worked in Iowa TV many many years ago, there was an elderly reporter who was freelancing with us after being forcibly retired from the Des Moines Register newspaper. He had discovered that a certain precinct in one Iowa town...like a Cedar Rapids/Waterloo or something...had correctly voted for for the winning Presidential candidate in every single race since statehood in 1846.
That was the one result he was interested in during early returns to make his call for the presidency. "Sometimes we, as coaches, get into that dictator mode where you just tell and you don't listen and you don't try to understand them." Tom Izzo, Mich. St.
"Fraud is the creation of trust. And then: its betrayal."
William Black, Ph.D.
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But---W was elected in 2000, twenty years after Reagan and in a year ending in zero. No assassination attempts, no sign of ill health. He seems to have "broken" the pattern. Perhaps he'll make it two?
technically there was an assasination attempt.
Am I the only one who remembers when that guy shot at the Oval Office? I know that it was pre-Sept. 11, but still... "Sometimes you want to give up the guitar, you'll hate the guitar. But if you stick with it, you're gonna be rewarded."
-Jimi Hendrix
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That was just a psycho with a gun. To try to blow someone away, you at least need to have the guy in your sights.
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Anyone else remember that the plane that crashed in PA was intended for the White House. Coincidence I think not. This was an assassination attempt foiled by the courageous people on that United Airlines flight.
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We don't know that it was so "intended". That is merely the supposition. We can't ask the only people who knew what they were up to.
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The Redskins can't do anything right. Heaven is where the police are British, the chefs Italian, the mechanics are German, the lovers are French, and its all organized by the Swiss.
Hell is where the police are German, the chefs are British, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, and it's all organized by the Italians.
"I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered" George Best
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That was just a psycho with a gun.
And the guy who shot at regan was.... ? The only way to atone for being occasionally a little over-dressed is by being always absolutely over-educated. -Oscar Wilde
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And the guy who shot at regan was...
... "One sexy sexy beast," said Jodie Foster. "I'd marry him, if he weren't in jail."
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