Donald Trump may find a place in history — by losing just that badly - By George F. Will

[DonViejo]

When told that the New England transcendentalist Margaret Fuller had grandly declared “I accept the universe,” the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle dryly remarked: “She’d better.” Much ink and indignation has been spilled concerning whether Donald (“I am much more humble than you would understand”) Trump will “accept” the election’s outcome. The nation, like the universe of which it is the nicest part, will persevere even without the election result being accepted by the fellow who probably will be the first major-party presidential nominee in 20 years to receive less — probably a lot less — than 45 percent of the vote.

When the Jimmy Carter/Walter Mondale ticket lost 44 states in 1980, Mondale used his elegant concession remarks to herald “a chance to rejoice”: “Today, all across this nation — in high school cafeterias, in town halls, and churches, and synagogues — the American people quietly wielded their staggering power. .?.?. Tonight we celebrate above all the process we call American freedom.” Today, such political grace notes are rare as the nation slouches toward its first dyspeptic landslide — an electoral-vote avalanche for a candidate regretted by a majority of the electorate.

Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860 with the lowest percentage of the popular vote (39.9) of any electoral winner in history. He received fewer than the combined votes for two Democratic rivals, the Northerner Stephen Douglas and the Southerner John Breckinridge. This did not prevent Lincoln from becoming the nation’s greatest president. Majorities, however helpful, are not necessary. In 14 of the 39 elections since 1860 the winner did not get a majority of the popular vote, including Woodrow Wilson (twice), Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton (twice), Democrats all.

Carter’s 50.1 percent of the popular vote in 1976 was the only time in the 40 years after 1964 that a Democratic presidential candidate would win a majority of the popular vote. Ronald Brownstein of the Atlantic notes, “Since the 1828 election of Andrew Jackson that historians consider the birth of the modern two-party system, no party has ever won the presidential popular vote six times over seven elections.” By the evening of Nov. 8, the Republican Party likely will have lost the popular vote for the sixth time in seven elections, and will have lost three consecutive elections for the first time since the 1940s.

-snip-

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-may-find-a-place-in-history--by-losing-just-that-badly/2016/10/26/77d15d8e-9ae8-11e6-b3c9-f662adaa0048_story.html?utm_term=.242f5a4e7fa6&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1

[Cha]

1. Fingers Crossed!

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. The last line is the knife thrust

The disdain that George Will has for Donald Trump is delicious.

[Dem2]

3. I hope so

But it's fun watching any republican with half a brain hoping that he loses bad though

[NewJeffCT]

4. He's basically saying that Trump is not a Republican

which will be the primary excuse by the GOP after the loss. So, their solution will be to nominate a "true" RW conservative like Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz or similar in 2020.