Posted by gweiss, Tue Jan 29 07:28:00 UTC 2008

This is really a quick aside to David, but worth a post anyway.

Think about this: since 1980, a Bush or a Clinton has been on the presidential ticket every single election. Imagine, for a moment, Clinton wins the nomination this year, prevails in the general election, and is elected to a second term four years hence. In the following election, in 2016, if my math is correct (and bear with me here since I’m posting this entry via cell while waiting for a meeting to begin), a voter would need to be 58 years old(!) to have voted in the last election without either family dynasty as an option. That’s remarkable … And to me, at least, profoundly disturbing.

If you add the Dole and Nixon names to the list–well, I’d have to double check this (again, top of my head here), but I believe that takes us to 1948 … if you were 18 years old in that election, you were born in 1930, meaning by the 2016 election, you’re statistically more likely to be, well, dead than voting.

UPDATE: See, this is what happens when you post by phone: 1964 was LBJ/Humphrey v Goldwater/Miller. But you get my drift …

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