Pointless Presidential Pfacts #15 - "Florida, Florida, Florida"

With the Romney campaign conceding Florida, the State's role in presidential elections goes beyond being a swing state. Unlike in 2000, the State's outcome would determine the next president. 2000 was the last presidential with where the popular vote winner was not the electoral vote winner. In 1876, the first time the popular vote winner was not also the electoral vote winner, Florida played a role. Florida was one of three States, where their electoral votes were in dispute. Each party claimed the right to their slate of electors, those that would vote in the Electoral College. Rutherford B. Hayes had a majority and one more electoral vote than Samuel Tilden, his opponent. In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the recounts in Florida, which then allowed George W. Bush to claim the needed electoral votes to win the presidency against Al Gore. In 1876, a commission of 15 was set up to determine the disputed votes and the Compromise of 1877 gave Hayes the presidency and removed federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #13 - "Calling the Winner!!!"

After the People cast their votes determining which candidate wins the electoral votes of the States, the electors cast their vote for both president and vice president in the Electoral College. In a Joint-Session of Congress, the VPOTUS, as president of the Senate, presides and counts the votes. Sometimes the new president that is proclaimed ran against the VPOTUS during the general election, Richard Nixon announced JFK in 1960, Hubert Humphrey announced Nixon in 1968, and Al Gore, the popular vote winner, announced George W. Bush in 2000. We'll see if Joe Biden will get to do what Dick Cheney did in 2004 or what Dan Quayle did in 1992 (or similar to Cheney in 2008 announcing the opposition party the victory.)

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #10 - "Cleveland's Popular, the President not the City"

Grover Cleveland gets remembered for being the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms or as the first Democrat elected president since the Civil War. He was also the second bachelor elected in 1884, after James Buchanan in 1856, but that changed when he became the first to get married in the Executive Mansion to the 21 year old, he was 49, Francis Cleveland, the youngest first lady. His non-consecutive two terms wasn't intentional, he lost reelection in 1888 to Benjamin Harrison. Harrison 23, not to be confused with his grandfather William Henry Harrison, the 9th POTUS, won the Electoral College and Cleveland won the popular vote. Unlike the other elections where the popular vote winner lost the Electoral College, this was the only one that was accepted and no commission formed, no Supreme Court involvement, and the Congress didn't have to decide anything. Harrison won, Cleveland lost. When Cleveland returned 4 years later for a rematch, President vs. Former President, he won becoming the first former president to do so. Cleveland's buddy Theodore Roosevelt would come close in 1912 to be the second but no luck there. So Cleveland won the popular vote 3 elections in a row, but he never got over 50% of the vote, and he wasn't renominated in 1896 to try for a fourth consecutive run because of the economic depression, aka the Panic of 1893. The worst depression to face the country until the Great Depression, where a four consecutive term president would handle that and a second world war. That's another Roosevelt and another pointless presidential pfact.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #4 - "Adams/Jefferson '96???"

In our nation's 3rd presidential election in 1796, Vice President John Adams, supported by the Federalists, was the first place winner in the Electoral College and the runner-up was former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, supported by the anti-federalists which would eventually become the Democratic-Republicans. So from 1797-1801, the POTUS was from one party and the VPOTUS was from another party, something that would not happen again until 1864 when Republican Abraham Lincoln ran with Democrat Andrew Johnson on the National Union ticket...but that one was planned.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #3 - "The One, the Only, George Washington"

George Washington. 1st POTUS. 1789-1797. Virginian. No Party Affiliation.

George Washington was unanimously elected by the ELECTORAL COLLEGE twice in 1789 and 1792. Never again has this been repeated, but it has come near unanimous first with James Monroe in 1820 (the closest), Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 (not far behind), and Ronald Reagan in 1984 (ditto and the most recent).

President James Monroe was reelected to a second term in 1820, unopposed in the "Era of Good Feelings." Monroe would receive 98.3% of the Electoral College votes, 3 members would not end up voting and one unfaithful elector cast a vote for Secretary of State John Quincy Adams because he felt he'd be a better president than Monroe.

In President Franklin Roosevelt's first try at reelection he received 60% of the popular vote and 98.5% of the Electoral College vote, losing just Vermont and Maine to Alf Landon in 1936.

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan won 59% of the popular vote and 97.6% of the Electoral College, that's everything except his opponent former Vice President Walter F. Mondale's home State of Minnesota and the District of Columbia.