Mar.15

electoral-vote.com

Dem 51

   

GOP 49

Word Cup, Round 3: Presidential Slogans

The end is near! Today, we reveal the quarterfinalists for the political slogans. First, from Group F vs. Group H:

• Hope (62.4%) defeats Give 'em Hell, Harry! (37.6%)
• Make America Great Again (50.05%) barely defeats I Like Ike (49.95%)

That means that the quarterfinal matchup here, appropriately enough, is Hope vs. Make America Great Again.

And from Group B vs. Group D:

• Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too! (75.8%) defeats Let Us Have Peace (24.2%)
• A New Deal for America (73.9%) defeats The Union Must and Shall Be Preserved! (26.1%)

That means that the quarterfinal matchup here is Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too! vs. A New Deal for America. America's shortest-serving president against its longest-serving.

Here are some reader comments on these various clashes:

• S.D.R. in Raleigh, NC: "Hope" defeats "Give 'em Hell, Harry!"—"Hope" played a role, however small, in a black man getting elected president, which for most of my pre-2008 life was something I thought I'd never see.
  
  "I Like Ike" defeats "Make America Great Again"— MAGA got Trump elected once, and even that wouldn't have happened without some help from the Founding Fathers' Affirmative Action for Republicans program (a.k.a. the Electoral College). "I Like Ike" got Eisenhower elected twice. Besides, nothing about Donald Trump is superior to anything about Dwight D. Eisenhower.
  
  
• E.W. in Seattle, WA: One upside of "Give 'em Hell, Harry" is that it gave him a perfect comeback. I heard him do that with great effect in 1957 at a "bean feed" attended by about 500 well-lubricated DFLers in St. Paul, MN. One of them in the back of the hall stood up during his speech and bellowed it out, to which he responded in his nasal twang, "I never give 'em hell, I just tell the truth and the Republicans think it's hell," which got him an enthusiastic wave of wild whoops and cheers.
  
  
• R.B. in Chaska, MN: This one was easy. Seldom has the American voter gotten exactly what they expected out of a campaign slogan. A New Deal for America put the program front and center.
  
  
• F.R. in Berlin, Germany: This matchup between Abraham Lincoln and FDR looks like a match that will go to extra time and a penalty shootout. Personally, I believe that the New Deal, compared with "The Union must and shall be preserved," more precisely encapsulates the kind of momentous change that this candidate's supporters tried to achieve with their votes, i.e. government-driven redistribution of wealth in the U.S. and a federal government actively helping the economically challenged.
  
  
• D.H. in Lake Barrington, IL: Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too!
  
  As a drummer I appreciate the rhythm of it, the triplet feel (very rare in slogans), and the rhyme. It just rolls off the tongue so easily.
  
  
• S.N. in Santa Clara, CA: I recently rewatched The Hunger Games and appreciated their adaptation of George Wallace's phrase—Panem Now, Panem Tomorrow, Panem Forever.

Here is the ballot for this round. And, of course, we continue to welcome comments.

Also, the thing that clued us into the fact that yesterday's posting did not properly go live was the utter lack of response to the suggestions for the bracket competition. We were flabbergasted that nobody saw fit to offer up a single blunder for consideration. Of course, we eventually figured out what the problem was, and now we've gotten a bunch, but the mailbox is definitely still open. Note that we're going to take the suggestion of several readers, and switch the title from "Worst Blunders" to "Greatest Blunders." As reader T.P. in Cleveland observed: "Think positive! Some of these blunders will be tremendous! Stupendous! Awesome!" Fair enough. Some of them might even be bigly. (Z)