I've been politically-minded all of my life - at least my first memories of watching the returns in November of 1960 are sharp and clear after nearly half a century of more Novembers. I joined the political campaign of George McGovern in 1972 after we had finally received the right to vote in 1971 with the 26th Amendment. I trekked my two young daughters to Washington DC and we braved the cold at the first Clinton's inauguration the Capitol lawn in January of 1993. You'll understand, then, my fascination with Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. You can truly procrastinate for hours on this site. Find the election of 1897 and notice the meager map of these United States. Or find the election of 1960 and find that only 12,000 more people voted for JFK than Richard Nixon. Look at how Teddy Roosevelt lost real big against Woodrow Wilson in 1912 when Teddy switched to the Progressive party. There are links galore for the political science curiosity in all of us. By the way, one of the most fascinating books on the presidents is Presidential Character: Predicting Performance in the White House by James Barber. The 5th edition will be released this summer in July. I believe that the newest edition of Barber's classic analyzes the presidents only through the first George Bush, the most recently-revised edition was published in 1992 and the newest version will only contain a new foreward. It is still fascinating reading. My 1977 copy is falling apart.
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