Now that the Supreme Court has chosen our next president, what is the likelihood that Tecumseh’s Curse will kick in once again? For the unenlightened, this is the old indian curse that may or may not be responsible for the death of every U.S. president elected in a year ending in 0 since 1840 (Ronald Reagan survived being shot in 1981, and supposedly broke the curse, but that is debatable since everyone knows he was already brain-dead when he was elected).
IIRC, the “Zero Factor,” as I had always heard it referred to was to expire in the year 2000. 'course, it’s been nearly 20 years since I last thought of it.
enlightenment was provided by Uncle Cecil in Return of the Straight Dope with Was there an Indian curse that presidents elected in “0” years would die in office?
And “what is the likelihood that Tecumseh’s Curse will kick in once again?” is beyond the scope of General Questions.
I think there is a thread or two speculating in IMHO, if you care to look. But of course no observer can handicap that unhappy scenario.
This tired old subject comes up every 20 years (I first heard about it waaaay back when Kennedy was elected), but it’s still morbidly fascinating. I note that Cecil’s column says there’s no evidence that such a curse was made, but that doesn’t prove that it didn’t happen! Twilight Zone music, please! Here’s my prediction: if the “curse” is still in effect, it won’t “kick in” until at least 2002, because you can bet that the Secret Service will be extra protective of Bush for quite a while, at least until the furor over the controversial ending to this election dies down.
Spritle always thought that Tecumseh’s Curse was about shitty lawnmower engines 
As a statistician, I can almost assuredly guess the odds to be better than you being struck by lightning while on your way to cash in your winning lottery ticket. Maybe around 6 Billion:1 (similarity between this odds ration and the population of the Earth may or may not be coincidental.)
I’ll do some research and some calculations and get back to you.
::Picks up phone and calls bookie::
You want the odds that Dubya will die in office? Easy. For a first approximation, take the number of presidents who have died in office, and divide by the total number of presidents. Maybe refine that by an estimation of whether Bush will serve one term or two, and toss in some actuarial data on his current and past health, age, and personal habits. It works out to rather better than spritle’s 6 billion to one. Of course, should Bush happen to die in office (or have a close call, like Reagan), this does not mean that it was “caused” by the curse kicking in.
Indeed, Chronos. On a related topic, I was once asked “What is the most hazardous job in America?” The person asking had just read an article on the subject. My answer was “President of the United States.” The fatality rate is at least 15%. (I may be forgetting 1 or 2 presidents who died in office.) And that’s with an average job tenure of about 5 years. The “real” answer was, of course, something else. “President of the United States” isn’t a job in the same way that, say, mining, police work, or other hazardous occupations are jobs.
Y’Know, the curse is fun and all that, but you can torture the logic to curse just about any President. How about “The Curse of the 6’s”
1876 Rutherford B. Haues, elected in scandal, one term President
1896 Wm. McKinley, assasinated in office
1916 Woodrow Wilson, suffered a stroke, finished up as an invalid
1936 F. Roosevelt, died in office
1956 Dwight Eisenhower, heart attack
1976 Jimmy Carter, humiliating foreign policy defeat, one-term President
1996 Bill Clinton, impeached (acquited)
Maybe Tecumsah spread his curses around.