h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is a fine biography of LBJ, but I have one minor quibble. His 1964 victory over Barry Goldwater was indeed a landslide of historic proportion. Still, according to the U.S. Government's figures (see http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/electoral_college/scores.html#1964 for the online version) he received 42,825,463 popular votes to Goldwater's 27,146,969. The ratio of 1.58:1 falls well short of nearly doubling his opponent's tally.

There is a serious point to noting that not even Johnson received two-thirds of the votes. In 1972, the Republicans turned the tables, as Richard Nixon was re-elected with a similar margin. These results show that each major party can pretty much count on nearly 40% of the vote in even the worst of years (when taking on an incumbent President who successfully portrays the challenger as an extremist). The elections are contested over the remaining 20% or so of the electorate.