Presidential geography

[YOhio]

The U.S. seems to elect our president's from a pretty limited geographic range, namely the South and Northeast. This trend is expected to continue as it's very possible that we'll have two Northeastern liberals in Hillary and Rudy fighting each other for the presidential bid. If not Rudy, then Romney. McCain is the only viable candidate who is not a Southerner or Yankee.

With the exceptions of Reagan and Nixon, every elected President has been from those areas. Any thoughts on why this is so?

GWB: Texas
Clinton: Arkansas
GHWB: Connecticut/Texas
Reagan: California
Carter: Georgia
*Ford: Michigan
Nixon: California
LBJ: Texas
Kennedy: Massachusets
Eisenhower: Texas
Truman: Missouri
Roosevelt: New York
*not elected

[woot]

I'd say mostly because that's where the people live. California might be due for one, but California seems like it's on a bit of an island, whereas southerners seem to relate to other southerners regardless of state, and the same seems true for NEers.

[ute4ever]

Well the obvious answer is that 75% of the U.S. population is from the Northeast, South, and California.

But on top of that, once a candidate emerges from one of those regions, do the surrounding voters tend to favor the local? I mean why else does Mitt Romney have such a large lead in the upcoming New Hampshire primary, as opposed to the other primaries that are more distant from MA/CT.

[creekster]

It's very simple. People from the NE and the South have larger heads than other regions and so they look better on TV.

[YOhio]

The population argument can be persuasive when considering the general election, but not so much when considering the primaries.

To the primary issue, the most important states have not had a presidential candidate from their state in the past century. Iowa, NH, Florida, Michigan and South Carolina are voting for candidates from outside of their state. It's not a population issue.

When it comes to the general election, I'm not certain that population plays as big of a role as it initially appears. For example, Massachusets, New York and California are certain to vote for the D, regardless of who the candidate is or where they come from. Candidates have factored this in their campaigning and have focused efforts in less populated (not necessarily small) battleground states. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Tennessee, and Florida are the states that will select our next president, but none of them will have a candidate on the ballot. (unless Thomson wins the R nomination, even then, Gore still lost Tenn) None of the candidates will spend any time in the NW unless they are raising money, although they will spend time in the South.

As to creeksters point about the big heads, it appears that monkey man is a little self conscious about his mini-cranium.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by YOhio

As to creeksters point about the big heads, it appears that monkey man is a little self conscious about his mini-cranium.

That's very rude. You know very well it is an ape.

As to my head size, I'll have you know that my family has very large heads, on average. My great uncle was refused entry to the army in the great dubya dubya II becasue his head was so big they didn't have a helmet for him (this is true; his melon was e-stinkin'-normous). My mother gave my son some frou-frou frilly french baby clothes when he was born adn his head was so large, we couldn't get the silly looking things over it, which was a relief to me. So I think my family would do quite well on TV, thanks.