Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by cmn32480 on Saturday November 14 2015, @04:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the coin-flip dept.

The Bern Report reports

Dr. Rick Hardy and Dr. John Hemingway have been leading Mock Presidential Elections [at Western Illinois University] since 1975. During that time, students who have participated in these mock elections have chosen the winning party with 100% accuracy and have an astonishing record in selecting presidential winners.

On the Democratic side for the Primaries Sanders won[1] by close to a 2 to 1 margin over challenger Hillary Clinton.

[...] After nominating Sanders, the student Democrats put him up against Jeb Bush, who received the Republican nomination, with Bernie winning the electoral college by nearly a 4 to 1 margin and a decisive win for the popular vote.

This simulation always takes place the year before the presidential election year, and three months before the actual Iowa caucuses. The genesis of this mock presidential election began at the University of Iowa in 1975 with two political science doctoral students, John Hemingway and Rick Hardy. In that year, students selected Jimmy Carter over Gerald Ford--long before anyone really knew of Jimmy Carter.

In the years that followed, Rick Hardy expanded the format and engaged thousands of students at the University of Missouri-Columbia where students registered a perfect record of selecting the subsequent winning presidential party. In 2007 and 2011, Hardy and Hemingway teamed up again to conduct a massive campus-wide simulation at Western Illinois University. In 2007, Western students selected Barack Obama as president at a time when no one thought he could win! And, in 2011, students narrowly re-elected President Obama.

[1] Content is behind scripts.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Saturday November 14 2015, @05:30PM

    by Wootery (2341) on Saturday November 14 2015, @05:30PM (#263346)

    He's 74, so he'd be the oldest president so far. The oldest yet is Reagan, who was a couple of weeks under 70 when he became president. [wikipedia.org]

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Saturday November 14 2015, @06:00PM

    by Nerdfest (80) on Saturday November 14 2015, @06:00PM (#263361)

    It's not natural causes I worry about.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday November 15 2015, @06:19AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday November 15 2015, @06:19AM (#263578) Journal
      The last time someone actually died in office, John F. Kennedy, from suspicious causes, he had backstabbed the Mafia (who had supported Kennedy earlier in his career via his father). My take is that nobody has either the cause or need to assassinate Sanders. It shouldn't be that hard to get an interminable conflict with Congress should Sanders actually be sincere.
      • (Score: 1) by Francis on Monday November 16 2015, @06:36PM

        by Francis (5544) on Monday November 16 2015, @06:36PM (#264053)

        Except that Lee Oswald had no ties to organized crime. He was a communist and the Russians didn't want much to do with him.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday November 16 2015, @07:23PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 16 2015, @07:23PM (#264069) Journal

          Except that Lee Oswald had no ties to organized crime.

          That's a feature not a bug.