by Christopher B. Daly
Readers of this blog are obviously an intelligent, discerning, and deeply informed group of people, curious about many things and knowledgable about many others. So, here goes:
How many presidential candidates in U.S. history have ever gotten elected without carrying their home states?
A bonus question: who were they?
Turns out, of the 44 men who have won the office, only three failed to carry their home state (that is, the one they were living in when they ran for president). They were James K. Polk of Tennessee, Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey, and Richard Nixon of New York.
Now, consider Mitt Romney.
–He was born in Michigan.
–He spent the bulk of his adult life in Massachusetts — racking up two degrees from Harvard (when’s the last time he mentioned either of those? Don’t forget: he has a law degree.), then working at Bain in Boston and later becoming governor. This is the state where he votes.
–He also has a vacation home in New Hampshire.
–And he is building some kind of pleasure dome in La Jolla, Calif.
So, that makes four states where he has roots or homes, and according to the polls, he is going to lose all four of those states on Tuesday. What does that say about him? He could lose Massachusetts, the state where he has lived the longest, by 20 points. How is that not a story? Just imagine if Obama were poised to lose Illinois by 20 points. . . (or Hawaii!)
[the Romney mansion in Belmont, Mass. It’s an affluent place, but still, no one lives like this.]
Prof Chris Daly's Blog 