# Obama 1st since FDR to be re-elected with more than 50% of the vote? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 8, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407 "2012-11-08T21:20:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/21 "2012-11-08T22:23:53Z")
[People have linked to this XKCD cartoon in a lot of other threads and it’s relevant in this one, too.](http://xkcd.com/1122/) ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/22 "2012-11-08T22:24:32Z")
**Marley** -if FDR won 50% at least twice you’re are obviously correct. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/23 "2012-11-08T22:25:45Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > Did you know that Obama is the first Democratic president since 1824 with the first name “Barack” to be elected? Fascinating, isn’t it! But what about Barack Cleveland? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/24 "2012-11-08T22:26:39Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > **Marley** -if FDR won 50% at least twice you’re are obviously correct. He won with \>50% in all 4 elections. > [@pravnik](#): > > But what about Barack Cleveland? 😕 Barack was just Grover’s nickname. So the stat still holds 😉 ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/25 "2012-11-08T22:30:32Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > LBJ was only **ELECTED PRESIDENT** once. Yes. He was never RE-elected. But it’s often called that. Same with Truman. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2012, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/26 "2012-11-08T22:36:07Z")
FDR’s closest election was his fourth, where he got a little more than 53% of the vote and won by 7.5 points. That’s a little bit better than Obama did in 2008. > [@Marley23](#): > > Over the same period four Republican presidents have been re-elected with more than 50% of the popular vote and most of them won by very large amounts. I need to modify this point: Nixon and George W. Bush can’t get into the double-50% club. They both did better than 50% in their re-election campaigns but not in the first successful campaigns. Nixon got only 43.4% of the popular vote in 1968 - and also the second time really shouldn’t count what with all the cheating - and Bush got 47.9% in 2000. Eisenhower and Reagan surpassed 50% in both of their wins, as Clinton and Obama did. ---
**Author:** ![Julius\_Henry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8797f3/32.png) [@Julius\_Henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Julius_Henry)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/27 "2012-11-09T02:44:20Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Eisenhower and Reagan surpassed 50% in both of their wins, as Clinton and Obama did. Clinton did not get 50% in either of his elections. Wikipedia puts him at 43% in '92 and 49.2% in '96. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/28 "2012-11-09T03:36:58Z")
And in the same vein, it’s obvious why Romney/Ryan lost - no Republican has won the presidency since 1928 without a Nixon or a Bush on the ticket. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/29 "2012-11-09T04:51:40Z")
> [@Bookkeeper](#): > > And in the same vein, it’s obvious why Romney/Ryan lost - no Republican has won the presidency since 1928 without a Nixon or a Bush on the ticket. :dubious: But… no alliterative ticket ( **R** omney/ **R** yan) had ever lost before!!! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2012, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/30 "2012-11-09T05:35:07Z")
> [@Julius\_Henry](#): > > Clinton did not get 50% in either of his elections. Wikipedia puts him at 43% in '92 and 49.2% in '96. Of course. I even said that upthread. I’m not doing very well at keeping track of all the conditions of this piece of trivia. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/31 "2012-11-10T16:10:58Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > But… no alliterative ticket ( **R** omney/ **R** yan) had ever lost before!!! Except in [1952](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1952). Where does this keep coming from? ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/32 "2012-11-10T16:32:55Z")
Black Barack was NOT the first President whose race rhymes with his forename. That man was White Dwight. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/33 "2012-11-10T17:09:43Z")
Who pronounces “black” to rhyme with “Barack”? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/34 "2012-11-10T17:55:18Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Who pronounces “black” to rhyme with “Barack”? Jamaicans? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/35 "2012-11-10T17:56:47Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Who pronounces “black” to rhyme with “Barack”? Japanese. In fact, they would be pronounced almost identically. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2012, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/36 "2012-11-10T22:52:39Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Black Barack was NOT the first President whose race rhymes with his forename. That man was White Dwight. Eisenhower’s forename was David. Dwight was his middle name. Eisenhower was one of five presidents who went by his middle name rather than his first name. The others were Grant, Cleveland, Wilson, and Coolidge. And in most of these cases the future president abandoned a common first name - Stephen, Thomas, John, David - for an uncommon middle name - Grover, Woodrow, Calvin, Dwight. The exception was Grant who switched Hiram for Ulysses. If he had been elected, Willard Mitt Romney would have continued this tradition. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/37 "2012-11-11T06:23:44Z")
Ike and Grant switched becasue West Point messed up their names upon admission, and they ran with it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/38 "2012-11-11T08:20:09Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > Ike and Grant switched becasue West Point messed up their names upon admission, and they ran with it. No, it was earlier than that. Eisenhower had a cousin named David so his family called him Dwight instead so there would be no confusion. By the time he went to school, his name was registered as Dwight David instead of the David Dwight on his birth certificate. (He also had the nickname Ike from childhood). Grant was named Hiram Ulysses but the Hiram was never used and he grew up being called Ulys within his family. Two other Union figures didn’t use their first names either. William Tecumseh Sherman never used the name William and went by a shortened version of his middle name - his family and friends called him Cump. And Abraham Lincoln hated the name Abraham (or Abe) and was always called Lincoln even within his immediate family. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/39 "2012-11-11T08:38:05Z")
Thank you **Nemo**! Excellent trivia I was unaware of. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2012, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407/40 "2012-11-11T08:40:30Z")
These stats are meaningless. To begin with, for Clinton’s reelection there was a somewhat strong third candidate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-1st-since-fdr-to-be-re-elected-with-more-than-50-of-the-vote/640407.md?page=3)