When Western Illinois University puts together their annual mock presidential election, some pundits tend to perk up and pay attention. After all, they accurately predicted Barack Obama’s presidential win in 2007, and his narrower reelection win in 2011, after the same system had been used to astonishingly predict every presidential election since 1975 with 100% accuracy.
The results of WIU’s 2015 mock election are in, and if you tend to take the mainstream media seriously, the results of that election will more than likely surprise you: Bernie Sanders won the presidency, then the general election… and he did both in a massive landslide.
The WIU mock election, in which thousands of students from multiple schools form parties and caucuses and play out a small-scale election over the course of several days, has Bernie Sanders beating Hillary Clinton in 22 out of 26 primary states; Hillary Clinton survives past Super Tuesday, but loses out before the month of March is concluded.
As Sanders’ running mate, the school picked Martin O’Malley, though WIU hasn’t had a perfect record with vice presidential candidates, nor with losing tickets; in 2007, they had a Barack Obama/ John Edwards, while saying the GOP ticket would be Giuliani/ McCain. The school made up for that however in 2011, when they (somehow) accurately predicted the losing Mitt Romney/ Paul Ryan ticket. Nobody saw that coming, but somehow, WIU’s students did.
The Republican student body put together a Jeb Bush/ Marco Rubio ticket for 2016, and if you thought WIU’s primary results were interesting, get a load of this: The Sanders/ O’Malley ticket creams the Bush/ Rubio ticket heavy-handedly, with a blow-out landslide win in which Sanders/ O’Malley takes home 404 electoral votes, to the measily 114 picked up by Bush/ Rubio.
Keep in mind, however, that the participating schools only usually accurately predict the next presidency; their record with picking electoral victories is about as shaky as their records with choosing vice presidential candidates and the candidates on the losing ticket.
WIU’s mock elections come by way of Professors Rick Hardy and John Hemmingway, who used the system to accurately predict Jimmy Carter’s astonishing upset victory in their 1975 mock election. Hardy later implemented the same system in Missouri, before the two brought the mock elections to WIU.
Will WIU’s mock elections pull off a hat-trick? There’s no real reason to assume they won’t. If I were a Republican, this would certainly keep me up at night. Thankfully, however, that isn’t a problem I need to deal with.
Whoo-HoooooOOOOO!!!
Feel the Bern!
~ Wooo-HooooOOOO !!!! Feel the giant BS, Hillary won
This is cool, but saying that it’s “predicted every single presidential election…since 1975” is false. It happened in 1975, 2007, and 2011. It’s batting 3/3, not 10/10!
Um…there was nothing “astonishing” about Carter winning in 1976, nor was it an “upset.” If this reporter had bothered with any actual “research” she would have found that Carter led Ford in the polls beginning in July of 1976, all the way to the election, except for September when they were virtually tied. The upset would have been if Ford had won.
Unless every time a sitting president is defeated, it’s an “upset”, in which case Reagan “upset” Carter, which I assure you was not the case.
Here’s a reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_polling_for_U.S._Presidential_elections#United_States_presidential_election.2C_1976
Timothy’s comment is also correct, except that he is wrong that what is being reported is “cool.” Rather, it is laughable.
I must say that this is atrocious reporting – which is to be expected since it is from a leftist site, and leftists don’t pay much attention to things like “factual accuracy.” A fact is just someone else’s “truth,” I suppose.
You have it backwards as you republicans always do. Faux news ius your Bible of bs.
[…] terms of popular vote, Sanders beat Clinton in 22 out of 26 primary […]
[…] the mock election. As for the popular vote in WIU’s mock election, Sanders beat Clinton in 22 out of 26 primary states there, […]
[…] not a political buff, but I have been trying to pay attention. One thing that I saw recently: http://firebrandleft.com/university-100-accuracy-record-predicts-bernie-sanders-will-americas-next-p… Quote:UNIVERSITY WITH 100% ACCURACY RECORD PREDICTS BERNIE SANDERS WILL BE AMERICA’S NEXT […]
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! vote Bernie Sanders 2016
[…] A mock presidential election carried out by Western Illinois University showed Sanders would win the 2016 presidential election. They have successfully predicted who will be the next president for the last 20 years, using exactly the same system. […]
God help us if we dont get the life long career politicians out of power.
I am a WIU grad (1977) and voted for Jimmy Carter in 1976. That was before I learned that Zbigniew Brzezinski was his Zionist CIA/Mossad handler. Same role Henry Kissinger served for Nixon and Valerie Jarrett serves for Obama – keeping him “on script.”
I wouldn’t put too much faith in this prediction. If Loretta Lynch (DOJ) decides to indict Hillary Clinton, Sanders has a clear path to the Democratic nomination. https://youtu.be/-tcU6MVhD64
The Republican’s best bet is Donald Trump. He is wildly popular with the sheeple. Very charismatic, ala Ronald Reagan, and quite high in the Zionist Freemasonic hierarchy. http://henrymakow.com/2015/12/Donald-Drumpf-Illuminati%20Jew.html
I predict our OWNERS https://youtu.be/rsL6mKxtOlQ will install an alleged “white nationalist” to galvanize their enemies, ala Hitler. World War 3 will kick into high gear, and just like Russia and Germany, America will be crushed. Then the way is clear for their Luciferian New World Order. http://henrymakow.com/2016/01/zionism-is-world-domination.html
[…] those stats to a university with a 100 percent accuracy in predicting presidential elections since 1975 and Bernie is looking pretty […]
[…] More surprisingly, the university that has predicted every presidential election since 1975 with 100% accuracy is saying that Bernie Sanders will be our next president. […]
If you look at that electoral map with a critical eye, it’s absolutely ludicrous. Maryland and Hawaii would NEVER go red on a national election, especially one where there’s widespread support of the Democratic ticket. Illinois would be a total shocker as well.
On the other side, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming (for God’s sake), both Dakotas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and South Carolina are absolute, dyed-in-the-wool Red States – and Nebraska and Georgia aren’t likely to start swinging, even if North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Ohio, and Indiana all go blue.
The fact that Trump and Sanders are doing so astonishing well this far into the nomination process tells me that a large percent of the voting public are fed up with elections controlled by Republican and Democratic Party insiders. How is this a democracy when there are only two viable candidates chosen by a powerful few people? This primary has been a welcome ray of sunshine as people are saying business as usual is not good enough.
Get off the LSD folks. The socialIst will lose 49 states. REMBER 1972 AND 1984
LOL!! Bernie has been BURNED!!! Say hello to President Trump
So how are all the naive Bernie fanboys and fangirls doing these days? Are they feeling the Bern now?
Americans want, and needs, Bernie Sanders to win -Vote Bernie 2016!
Yeah, @LOLITICS, us Bernie supporters are #FeelingTheBird and #FeelTheBern as our erstwhile, tireless Progressive Democratic Socialist has won five our the last 6 states since last Tuesday (March 22) — with “progressive-minded voters” giving Bernie “yuge” wins in Washington state, Hawaii and Alaska.
The latter two states may be less populated and with fewer delegates, but the trendine here is pointing to the fact Bernie is now hitting some “open-field running” since $hillary got her wins in largely the “Bubba Beltway” southern red states friendly to Bill “Bubba” Clinton front-loaded into this Dem primary season. And $hillary’s razor-thin, single-digit percentage, alleged “wins” came in states like in Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts, Iowa and Nevada where there were WIDESPREAD reports of “improprieties” like VOTER SUPPRESSION and other FRAUD tactics now facing massive PEITITIONING DRIVES and mandated investigations (at least in MA and AZ, so far).
So, Lolitics, where does that leave you naive $hillary fanboys and fangirls these days? #FeelTheBird…like the one coming from my middle finger to you “establishment” sellouts!
Well, well, well, Lou Ferrari. Don’t you look like quite the fool now?
The “$hillary fanboys and fangirls” are probably feeling pretty good these days. It’s also funny that you bring up a candidate that I made no mention of supporting.
How is “The Bern” feeling these days? A lot like Gonorrhea?
He lost.
It’s not over!
How about now, you naive fool?
[…] les élections américaines depuis 1975. En novembre 2015, l’établissement avait alors donné Sanders gagnant des deux scrutins, primaire démocrate et présidentielle. Une prévision anecdotique… à […]
Can we expect a surprise at the convention – he seems to still have his detail with him and can’t find evidence he has suspended his campaign.
I came here to laugh at you.
Didn’t work out for the hippies and people who expect everything in life to be handed to them boo hoo. TRUMP 2016