The Week

■ Don’t let that Oath of Office scare you. The U.S. Constitution poses no serious threat to our form of government.

■ It turns out the definition of a “landslide” depends on who’s sliding. Bill Clinton’s win—with 370 electoral votes, but only a Mondale-or Dukakis-level 43 per cent of the popular vote—was dubbed a “landslide” by several major newspapers, columnists, and TV pundits. But, according to USA Today, not one of the nation’s fifty largest papers saw a landslide in Bush’s 1988 victory when he took 53 per cent of the popular vote and racked up 426 electoral votes. For a Republican, it seems, a majority isn’t enough for a landslide; for a Democrat it isn’t even necessary.

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Presidential Election

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Constitution

■ Don’t let that Oath of Office scare you. The U.S. Constitution poses no serious threat to our form of government.

■ It turns out the definition of a “landslide” depends on who’s sliding. Bill Clinton’s win—with 370 electoral votes, but only a Mondale-or Dukakis-level 43 per cent of the popular vote—was dubbed a “landslide” by several major newspapers, columnists, and TV pundits. But, according to USA Today, not one of the nation’s fifty largest papers saw a landslide in Bush’s 1988 victory when he took 53 per cent of the popular vote and racked up 426 electoral votes. For a Republican, it seems, a majority isn’t enough for a landslide; for a Democrat it isn’t even necessary.