Has anybody ever won the presidency with as few counties as Obama?

[Nym90]

For as far back as the Atlas has complete county data, 1940, no. Obama's 875 surpasses the previous low which was indeed Kennedy, who won 1,186 counties.

The data for each year can be found under the Election Statistics, BTW.

Of course, add an asterisk for Gore's popular vote victory in 2000 with 674 counties.

Obama actually won fewer counties than Carter in 1980 (who won 900). Kind of amazing, really. Carter in 1976 was the last Democrat to win a majority of counties. Clinton came close both times, but couldn't quite pull it off. Obama would probably have to win a 20 point landslide to have a chance in 2012.

[Nym90]

If a county is tied, it counts as a win for both candidates, so the numbers won't add up for every year.

2008-Obama 875, McCain 2238
2004-Kerry 583, Bush 2530
2000-Gore 674, Bush 2439
1996-Clinton 1526, Dole 1587
1992-Clinton 1519, Bush 1582, Perot 15
1988-Dukakis 820, Bush 2295
1984-Mondale 334, Reagan 2781
1980-Carter 900, Reagan 2213
1976-Carter 1711, Ford 1403
1972-McGovern 131, Nixon 2980
1968-Humphrey 684, Nixon 1849, Wallace 578
1964-Johnson 2275, Goldwater 826, Unpledged 6
1960-Kennedy 1186, Nixon 1848, Unpledged 71
1956-Stevenson 924, Eisenhower 2143, Unpledged 32
1952-Stevenson 994, Eisenhower 2105
1948-Truman 1640, Dewey 1193, Thurmond 265
1944-Roosevelt 1754, Dewey 1340
1940-Roosevelt 1950, Willkie 1144

Interesting that Dewey actually won more counties in 1944 than in 1948. Also Dole winning more counties than Bush in 1992, though that was because of Perot (Clinton increased his number of counties by a larger margin) Otherwise not too surprising, other than the continual shift of rural areas towards the GOP (Clinton winning fewer counties even in 1996 than Carter in 1976, Gore winning fewer than Dukakis, Obama winning fewer than Carter in 1980).