AP Photo/Nick Wass
When the ‘Skins lost on Sunday to the woeful Carolina Panthers, tea-leaf-readers started prognosticating that President Obama would be doomed come Tuesday. After all, with only one exception since Washington got an NFL franchise has the incumbent president’s political party suffered the same fate as the ‘Skins on the last home game before Election Day.
But, clearly, the forecasting did not pan out.
The so-called “‘Skins Rule”—OK, it has a more alliterative name, but we’d rather not use it—dictates that Washington wins its last home game before the presidential election, either the incumbent president or the nominee from the president’s party will be elected. Between 1940, when the ‘Skins beat the Pittsburgh Steelers a few days before Franklin Roosevelt knocked off Wendell Wilkie, and 2000, when the ‘Skins and Al Gore both lost, the rule was upheld.
The first aberration occurred in 2004, when the Green Bay Packers trounced the ‘Skins at FedEx Field. It should have been a good omen for Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) bid to unseat Republican President George W. Bush. Instead, Bush won by a comfortable, if not resounding, margin on the ensuing Election Day.
The rule’s inventor, Steve Hirdt of the Elias Sports Bureau, attempted to modify the parameters after the Kerry mismatch. Now, he said, the rule applies not to the Electoral College, but to the previous winner of the popular vote. Therefore, Gore’s popular-vote victory in 2000 now validates the ‘Skins Rule being upheld in 2004.
That’s all a bit too convenient for Hirdt, who, it would appear, finagled his coincidental findings to erase a one-time error. However, there’s no getting around what happened last night. The ‘Skins lost on Sunday, but the Democratic Party won the 2008 popular vote. Rule invalidated. And it’s even more obviously broken when using Hirdt’s original, non-self-absolving formula.
So let’s dump the ‘Skins Rule. It was arbitrary at best, but now it’s completely wrong. Also, getting rid of it will give people one less reason to utter the full name of the Washington football team.
