Malodery's numbers are incorrect. My numbers are from the New York Times and CNN:
Obama 2012 = 51.39% (won by 2.78%)
Romney 2012 = 48.61%
Bush 2004 = 51.24% (won by 2.24%)
Kerry 2004 = 48.76%
If Obama's a "landslide" so was Bush. But none of the media reported it as a landslide in 2004 or thereafter. I still maintain that the word "landslide" is not descriptive of the result. That was the point of my post. I believe these numbers bear me out.
To find out what a real "landslide" look like, review Reagan's two victories.:
In Reagan's re-election in 1984, Reagan carried 49 of the 50 states, becoming only the second presidential candidate to do so after Richard Nixon's victory in the 1972 presidential election. Mondale's only electoral votes came from the District of Columbia and his home state of Minnesota, which he won by a mere 3,761 votes. Reagan's 525 electoral votes (out of 538) is the highest total ever received by a presidential candidate. Mondale's 13 electoral votes is also the second-fewest ever received by a second-place candidate, second only to Alf Landon's eight in 1936. In the national popular vote, Reagan received 58.8% to Mondale's 40.6%. No candidate since then has managed to equal or surpass Reagan's 1984 electoral result. Also, no post-1984 Republican candidate has managed to match or better Reagan's electoral performance in the American Northeast.
In Reagan's first election, where he whupped Jimmy Carter, here are the "landslide" results:
| Nominee | Ronald Reagan | Jimmy Carter | John B. Anderson |
|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Republican | Democratic | Independent |
| Home state | California | Georgia | Illinois |
| Running mate | George H. W. Bush | Walter Mondale | Patrick Lucey |
| Electoral vote | 489 | 49 | 0 |
| States carried | 44 | 6 + DC | 0 |
| Popular vote | 43,903,230 | 35,480,115 | 5,719,850 |
| Percentage | 50.7% | 41.0% |
