Obama Popular Vote Margin Largest Ever for Non-Incumbent

By GottaLaff

Via Nate the Great:

Here's an impressive-sounding statistic, even if it's mostly an artifact of population growth. Barack Obama's victory margin from November 4th now stands at 9,124,522 votes, and will probably grow a bit more once states like Illinois, New York and California finalize their counts.

This is the 6th largest victory margin of all time, and the largest ever by a non-incumbent.

Largest Popular Vote Margin

Year   Candidate    Inc?   Margin
1972   Nixon        Yes    17,995,488
1964   Johnson      Yes    17,951,287
1984   Reagan       Yes    16,678,120
1936   Roosevelt    Yes    11,070,786
1956   Eisenhower   Yes    9,551,152
2008   Obama        No     9,124,522*
1980   Reagan       No     8,423,115
1996   Clinton      Yes    8,201,370
1924   Coolidge     Yes    7,377,547
1988   Bush         No     7,077,121
* Provisional

Gee, I don't see Bush 43 on there, do you?