Why do we always end up with a new president in an election year that ends with 8?

[BlueStater]

I know it's just a coincidence, but it's still bizarre as hell.

1788: Washington

1808: Madison

1828: Jackson

1848: Taylor

1868: Grant

1888: B. Harrison

1908: Taft

1928: Hoover

1968: Nixon

1988: G. H. W. Bush

2008: Obama

The only exception to this pattern was 1948 when Truman, the incumbent president, won reelection. That's it.

Thoughts?

[GeorgeGist]

1. It would appear to be a plot by the Gang of 8

[rug]

2. The Masons are behind it.

[kcjohn1]

3. Technical 1948 was new president too b/c Truman was VP who took over for FDR

[Wounded Bear]

4. Actually, that is every other 8...

[kellytore]

5. What's even more strange

The Republicans have not won the White House without a Bush or Nixon on the ticket since 1928.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Election years repeat in a cycle of 20 years ...

1960 1964 1968 1972 1976
1980 1984 1988 1992 1996
2000 2004 2008 2012 2016

If roughly two-thirds of our Presidents are re-elected and serve eight years, and the others only four years, it is highly likely that an approximately 20-year long pattern will emerge. It happens to be years ending in 8; it could just as well have been years ending in 0, 4, 2, or 6 -- and in some of those years, we did get new presidents, as we must at least as often as every eight years:

1960 Kennedy
1964 Johnson
1976 Carter
1980 Reagan
1992 Clinton
2000 Bu**sh**

So your rule doesn't work both ways anyway. Try asking why we don't get a new President in years ending in a 5 and suddenly it seems a lot less mysterious...

[First Speaker]

7. Actually, Dewey won the Presidency in 1948...

...he actually was elected easily, just as all the polls said he would be. But his administration was such a catastrophe that there's been an open conspiracy never to so much as talk about it. Thus, the myth of Truman's "upset victory" was concocted. Everyone--journalists, historians, you name it--is in on the conspiracy. As, of course, are the American people. It's an open secret among everyone in the country over 80, but one that nobody ever talks about...