Another Sign of a Clinton Victory?

Disclaimer: I wrote the following story during the 2016 election cycle. This story was written at a time when conventional political wisdom stated that an inarticulate and impolitic businessman with no political experience and multiple fraud and sexual assault allegations pending against him could not possible best a former First Lady/former United States Senator/former Secretary of State in a presidential race — and the tone of the piece reflects that.

Aside from the occasional corrections to spelling/grammatical/syntax/factual errors, the story you are about to read is in its original form.

With Trump’s record unpopularity ratings, the never-ending stream of controversy surrounding his impolitic statements, and his allegedly mutinous campaign staff, Donald Trump will most likely not become the 45th President of the United States. Even if Donald Trump was a qualified candidate who ran a highly disciplined campaign, he would still be going into the race with a major disadvantage. Donald Trump is not a firstborn child.

A young Donald Trump (first from left) with his siblings.

For some reason, the American people overwhelmingly prefer to elect first born children into the Oval Office. Twenty-four of forty-four presidents have been firstborns or first born sons. In the last twenty presidential election cycles (1936–2012), American voters have only chosen later born children over their firstborn rivals three times. (In 1936, FDR, an only child*, handily defeated firstborn Alf Landon. In 1968, Richard Nixon, the second of five sons, beat out firstborn George Wallace in a three-person race. Ronald Reagan, the younger of two sons defeated Jimmy Carter, the eldest of five, in 1980.)

Hillary Clinton is the oldest of three children. Trump is the fourth of five.

*FDR was his mother’s only child. However, FDR had a much older brother from his father’s first marriage.

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