Washington Redskins have successfully determined the US President for the past 15 elections?!

Whoa! In what will probably be my only political post, I just saw a most amusing "bit" on the local news channel. As I'm sure most readers are aware, the US Presidential elections are happening this Tuesday. The news channel (the sports reporter of all people) went on to say that the best method of predicting the presidential winner is to follow the outcome of the Washington Redskins football (NFL) game this week. Hhhmmm... It seems that the Redskins winning record has correctly determined the winner of the Presidential election for the past however many years. If the Washington Redskins win the incumbent party will remain in office, conversely, if the Redskins lose than the game then incumbent has lost the White House.

This year the Redskins are playing the Green Bay Packers in Washington at 1:00pm Eastern time, and apparently Green Bay is the favorite.

I also managed to dig up some more information on the Washington Redskins' amazing Presidential feats over on snopes.com, who offers this quote:

The Washington Redskins have proved to be a time-tested election predictor. In the previous 15 elections, if the Washington Redskins have lost their last home game prior to the election, the incumbent party has lost the White House. When they have won, the incumbent has stayed in power.

Posted by peter on October 28, 2004 at 08:17 PM
Comments

The victory of my team is not mutually exclusive to my political views.

*ahem*

"Hail to the Redskins...!"
"Hail Vic-tor-reee...!"
"Hail to the Redskins...!"
"FIGHT... for allllll ... Dee-Ceeee!!!!!!"

Posted by: JesterXL at October 29, 2004 09:02 AM

Hhhmm, according to an article on CNET, Bush is the odds on favorite to win.
The bets are in--Bush to win [via CNET]

George W. Bush is heading for a surprise landslide victory in next week's presidential elections, going by online betting patterns.

Obviously none of this is even remotely scientific, but hey...

Posted by: peter at October 29, 2004 12:46 PM

not really an NFL fan but, hoorah Green Bay Packers! ;)

Posted by: Peter at October 31, 2004 06:41 PM

FWIW, Green Bay beat Washington 28 to 14. So if the Redskins' streak continues, Kerry will win the Presidential election. Guess we'll find out in the next few days though.

Posted by: peter at October 31, 2004 07:04 PM