Kerry will win the election

[Kevin]

The Green Bay Packers victory over the Washington Redskins today has put an end to the debates and the polls for the next president of the United States. Since 1936, the Redskins final home game before the election has predicted the winning party. If the Redskins win, so does the incumbent party. If the Redskins lose, so does the incumbent party. Since the Redskins lost, Bush will lose. No need to worry or vote now. ;) Isn't life simpler when Fate comes in and takes over. :)

I'm a Packers fan, so I first caught this little tidbit about the prediction in reading "The Dope Sheet" on the game. I did some investigating and discovered that it was true. Snopes.com chronicles it all quite nicely on this page, though it isn't all that hard to independently verify.

I just thought some Lurkers might get a kick out of some random coincidence and since I'm happy the Packers won and got to .500 before their bye week I was looking for an excuse to post about it on a board that doesn't really care about the outcome of a football game. :)

[Nicodemus Phaulkon]

We'll see what Chief Justice Rehnquist has to say about that, by God! There'll be no Football-Elections while there's a perfectly sound Supreme Court to choose your next leader!

The very idea! *huff* *puff*

[pakman]

PACKERS FAN!?!?!?!!? How could you?

I'm a Bears fan and have no reason to talk anyway, but..... :P

Anyway, let people believe superstitions where they will.

[Rhydderch Hael]

Yes, folks. After all, the supernatural aspects of sports events are absolutely infallible. Ask any Red Sox fan. ;)

This is the year that the Curse of the Bambino was exorcised, and done so by coming back from 0-3 (with the Yankees themselves!) to get the Pennant. Which was remarkable, given fact that baseball players are formidable practitioners of black magic and whatnot.

Of any year not to trust the mojo in American sports, this is the one.

[jahcs]

Well, from what I've seen of the Redskins I'm suprised any incumbents get reelected. :P :P




Let the die-hard-redskins-fans light the flamethrowers :D :D

[Treesh]

Yes, folks. After all, the supernatural aspects of sports events are absolutely infallible. Ask any Red Sox fan.  ;)

This is the year that the Curse of the Bambino was exorcised, and done so by coming back from 0-3 (with the Yankees themselves!) to get the Pennant. Which was remarkable, given fact that baseball players are formidable practitioners of black magic and whatnot.

Of any year not to trust the mojo in American sports, this is the one.
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But that is all according to Gnollguy's plan! The RedSox win this year and the Cubs will win next year over the Yankees and then the Yankees don't make it to another World Series for over 100 years. It would be too heartbreaking for Cubs fans and Sox fans for one of the teams to lose to the other one so they couldn't both make it to the Series this year.

And I figure GG's allowed to put that hex on the Yankees because he's allowed me to hex the Buffalo Bills. Although I have finally allowed them to go to the Super Bowl in 2008. It used to be they were never allowed back, but I'm a nice person. ;)

[Minionman]

But that is all according to Gnollguy's plan!  The RedSox win this year and the Cubs will win next year over the Yankees and then the Yankees don't make it to another World Series for over 100 years.  [right][snapback]58759[/snapback][/right]

You forgot the year after the Cubs win when the White Sox beatthe Yankees and go on to win the worldseries.

[Tal]

You forgot the year after the Cubs win when the White Sox beatthe Yankees and go on to win the worldseries.
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Nonononono replace "White Sox" with "Orioles" and the prediction will be right. ;)

The year after that the Yankees get their license to play baseball revoked. :P

[Zarathustra]

and the Cubs will win next year over the Yankees[right][snapback]58759[/snapback][/right]

Any team can have a bad century.

[whyBish]

Since the Redskins lost, Bush will lose.

Bummer. Same goes for the French pub that predicted him too. Fortunately I was not in the camp of false predictors and made a nice $NZ5 on Bush winning.

Those that are disappointed in the result may be interested in this link

http://www.nielsbuus.dk/rod/2004election_by_iq.png

Although I would wager that there are other things that could be correlated just as well:
Distance to the sea
%Christians
Guns per person
Average number of generations to common ancestor (for couples) :P

[LiquidDamage]

That link isn't working, but, you might be interested to know that there were similar charts released after the 2000 election.

They were hoaxes.

If the chart you link to shows similar numbers for IQs for the states that are shown to be wrong for the 2000 hoaxes, yours is probably a hoax as well.

While we are on the subject, some people suggest that Bush has a higher IQ than Kerry.

You know what I think? IQ is a measure of how well you take IQ tests. I do very well on standardized tests. I did better than both Bush and Kerry if we go the SAT route (I've never taken a real IQ test). Should I be president? Am I more informed or wiser than all voters with lower IQs than mine?

This is not an endorsement or defense of Bush.

[Minionman]

I don't really care who has a higher IQ, but I do know that just because Bush talks "dumber" doesn't mean he is dumber. Some people have a hard time understanding this.

[Occhidiangela]

I don't really care who has a higher IQ, but I do know that just because Bush talks "dumber" doesn't mean he is dumber.  Some people have a hard time understanding this.
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Part of developing public trust, particularly as a political leader, requires being a convincing, believable, and perceived-as-intelligent public speaker. I'd guess is stood Senator Edwards in good stead during his Senatorial campaigns, since he can be all of those things.

Image does indeed count in leadership and in politics. Patton once commented that as a leader, you deliberately adopt a role, you play a role. Your followers expect you to be, or seem, better than they - otherwise, why the hell are the following you?

Occhi

[Minionman]

I wasn't talking about "leadership", justy smartness in general, although in this particular case it may have to do with leadership. What the people don't understand is that even though Bush is talking dumb, there are still plenty of things for him to be smart at that cancel this out.

Edited for a much better point I wanted to make.

[Boutros]

Bummer.  Same goes for the French pub that predicted him too.  Fortunately I was not in the camp of false predictors and made a nice $NZ5 on Bush winning.

Those that are disappointed in the result may be interested in this link

http://www.nielsbuus.dk/rod/2004election_by_iq.png

Although I would wager that there are other things that could be correlated just as well:
Distance to the sea
%Christians
Guns per person
Average number of generations to common ancestor (for couples)  :P
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To me, the idea that a state with millions of people in it has a mean IQ a full standard deviation above or below average is just silly.

[whyBish]

I really shouldn't reply to this topic at all, but since I've started digging, why not get myself a bit deeper? :P

Google for "IQ By State" brougt up 6 matches with the word "hoax" from just the returned blurbs alone... I should have known better. Below is some data that looks better.

http://sq.4mg.com/stateIQ-income.htm

[Chaerophon]

LOL! Washington D.C., third lowest according to your chart. So telling. :)

[kandrathe]

I really shouldn't reply to this topic at all, but since I've started digging, why not get myself a bit deeper?  :P

Google for "IQ By State" brougt up 6 matches with the word "hoax" from just the returned blurbs alone... I should have known better.  Below is some data that looks better.

http://sq.4mg.com/stateIQ-income.htm
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It is not really a fair test, due to the fact that in some states 5% of high school seniors take the tests and in others 50% or more take the tests. Also, people other than 18 year olds have an IQ, but the test only measures those who are intending to go to college.

[Occhidiangela]

LOL!  Washington D.C., third lowest according to your chart.  So telling. :)
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Not funny, and let me tell you why. (The fact that I was born in Washington DC has nothing to do with this post. :D )

That IQ does not reflect the people who "work" there, as in Senators and Congressmen, cabinet officers and ambassadors, civil servants, etc. No, those folks all live out in the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia.

It reflects very, very badly on the people and education serving the people, who LIVE in Washington DC, and that is no laughing matter. The White Flight of the 1950's and 1960's has made the demographics of Washington DC more similar to Harlem than the surrounding counties of Maryland and Virginia.

That number, the one that caused you to giggle, has been used by some real arseholes to point to a mental shortcoming in the ethnic background of the residents of Washington DC, a city that was for a couple of years the murder, per capita, captial of the US, a city where far, far too much neglect has occurred, a city where the Mayor got busted for crack possession. And re elected the next time he ran!

Any number of hard working and sincere reformers have been . . . shown the door. And the kids are still left behind to deal with the pimps and drug dealers on the street corners of the Southeast DC area.

That's my old neck of the woods, and it angers me. RFK stadium, the Redskins home turf, was in Southeast. The Redskins have since moved out to suburban Maryland, more White Flight. The new stadium for the Expos, who are moving to DC it seems, was planned to be in Southeast, and guess what? All of a sudden, someone is balking at putting a fancy stadium in the "blighted area" of DC.

Where in DC would such an alleged economic engine do the most good?

Southeast. The hypocrisy makes me scream, sometimes.

While I understand what made you laugh, it is a joke about a complete embarassment to our nation, and to the local political leadership of our capital city.

My cousin used to teach there, hearing deprived children and special ed. She finally got tired of having knives pulled on her.

My mom's college roommate's daughter worked for two hears in Southeast as a Christian Missionary (she's from lily white, suburban, San Jose, CA) ministering to the folks who need a hand up. After two years, she was alive and unshaken in her faith, though disappointed that after two years . . . little to nothing around her had changed. She lives in Atlanta now.

While the poke at Congress and the White House is appreciated, the numbers are no laughing matter.

Occhi

[Chaerophon]

Occhi: I had heard as much about DC through various 'popular' sources. Still tickled me a bit for obvious reasons. However, point taken.