Historical election least likely to be called "close" *or* a "landslide"

[Antonio the Sixth]

Well, Clinton's wins weren't a landslide in any way, nor were Obama's. I didn't hear anybody claim that but if someone does, I'd like to hear his arguments. As for Tuman, remember that a signle point swing from Dem to Rep would have flipped OH, IL and CA, thus the victory, to Dewey. In this way, it was close indeed.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yeah, I think Mechman really said it better than any of us could.

[Antonio the Sixth]

The tipping point State, Colorado, was won by just over 5 points, so it was clearly not close and clearly not a landslide.

The only really dubious landslide case is 1980, because Reagan's PV margin wasn't that impressive, but the EC results were. All the other victories slightly below 1980 levels (see 1988, 1992, 1996, 2008) were NOT landslides in any meaningful way.

[Antonio the Sixth]

The 1880 election is hardly ever mentioned as a "close" election, despite that the national popular vote difference was less than 2,000 votes and that only about 20,000 votes in New York would have swung the election.

1880 clearly was a very close election. Every election from 1876 to 1888 was.

[Antonio the Sixth]

The tipping point State, Colorado, was won by just over 5 points, so it was clearly not close and clearly not a landslide.

The only really dubious landslide case is 1980, because Reagan's PV margin wasn't that impressive, but the EC results were. All the other victories slightly below 1980 levels (see 1988, 1992, 1996, 2008) were NOT landslides in any meaningful way.

1980?? Reagan's PV margin was almost 10 points. That's pretty huge.

Nah, 10 points is good but not great. You are too focused on our modern hyper-partisan era, where everything above 5 seems outstanding.