Presidential Predictions

I remember hearing about the Curse of Tippecanoe [1] back in 5^th grade during the 1980 Presidential campaign, and so far, it was eerily accurate as a prediction of Presidential deaths while in office.

That is, until Ronald Reagan in 1981 [2] (and unbeknownst to me, George W. Bush also survived an attempt [3]).

So it was amazing when I came across An Algorithm for Determining the Winners of U.S. (United States) Presidential Elections [4] (link via The Old New Thing [5]) that has correctly predicted every Presidential election.

Every one.

And it's so easy you can put it in a spread sheet.

So, I decided to see who currently has the best shot at becoming the next President of the United States. I found a list of current Presidential candidates [6] and applied the formula.

Table: Presidential electability of the candidates for President in 2008
Name	Pres.	Rep.	Gov.	Other	Total
------------------------------
Democratic Candidates (*has not officially filed)
Joe Biden [7]	0	0	0	 	0
Chris Doss [8]	0	0	0	Child of Senator, Divorced	0
John Edwards [9]	0	0	0	 	0
Mike Gravel [10]	0	0	0	 	0
Dennis Kucinich [11]	0	12	0	Divorced	-98
Barack Obama [12]	0	0	0	 	0
Tom Vilsack [13]	0	0	8	 	88
Hiliary Clinton [14]*	0	0	0	 	0
Bill Richardson [15]*	0	14	6	 	80
Republican Candidates (*has not officially filed)
Sam Brownback [16]	0	2	0	 	2
John H. Cox [17]	0	0	0	 	0
Duncan Hunter [18]	0	28	0	 	28
Mitt Romney [19]	0	0	4	First Mormon	-66
Michael Smith [20]	0	0	0	 	0
John Gilmore [21]*	0	4	0	 	44
Rudy Giuliani [22]*	0	0	0	Divorced, Special Prosecutor	-220
Mike Huckabee [23]*	0	8	0	 	88
John McCain [24]*	4	0	0	Divorced	-106
Ron Paul [25]*	20	0	0	 	20
Tom Tancredo [26]*	10	0	0	First Evangelical	-100
Tommy Thompson [27]*	0	4	0	 	44
Libertarian Candidates
Steve Kubby [28]	0	0	0	 	0
George Phillies [29]	0	0	0	 	0
Christine Smith	0	0	0	 	0
------------------------------
Name	Pres.	Rep.	Gov.	Other	Total

But it's a total score of both the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates that win, not just the Presidential candidate (so there's a small outside chance that Giuliani could win, if he could find a Vice-Presidential candidate who is a corporate banker, president of a college and the child of a US (United States) Senator). I also think it's too early to really tell who will win at this stage; I'll know more after the caucuses and primaries of next year.

=> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Tippecanoe | [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_assassination_attempt | [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush#Assassination_attempt | [4] https://web.archive.org/web/20071004060523/http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3fs8i/air/Elections.htm | [5] http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2007/02/08/1627788.aspx | [6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2008 | [7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden | [8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Dodd | [9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Edwards | [10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Gravel | [11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Kucinich | [12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama | [13] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Vilsack | [14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Rodham_Clinton | [15] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Richardson | [16] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Brownback | [17] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_H._Cox | [18] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Hunter | [19] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney | [20] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Charles_Smith | [21] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Gilmore | [22] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Giuliani | [23] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Huckabee | [24] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain | [25] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Paul | [26] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Tancredo | [27] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Thompson | [28] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Kubby | [29] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Phillies

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