As we enter the fourth and final year of the 2008 presidential election race, please try the little quiz below. Are you smart enough to be among the pundits, commentators, so-called news networks, and other experts who have been making a lot of money, talking way too much, and getting very little right?

1. Name the last sitting US Senator to get elected president.

2. Name the last sitting US president to decline running for a term of office.

3. Name the first Romney to run for president and his poll numbers during his candidacy.

4. What is Mitt Romney’s real first name?

5. Who lost by a bigger margin: Goldwater in 1964 or McGovern in 1968?

6. The Washington Post says this President had the lowest poll numbers ever for a sitting president.

7. Bill Clinton’s approval rating one week after the Monica story broke, according to the W. Post.

8. Name the 1972 Republican congressman from Ohio who ran for president in the primaries against Nixon.

9. Running as a third party candidate, this man garnered the third-most non-Republican votes during the primaries of 1972. [This is amazing.]

10. Who was the person who challenged President Ford in the 1976 primary season, all the way to the convention hall?

11. In 1980, this future President won the Iowa caucus vote.

12. In 1984, Reagan became only the second president to win 49 states. Who did it first?

13. This current Republican candidate ran for president in 1988. He got .47% of the total vote in November.

14. In 1988, this guy won 18.9 per cent of the total vote and ZERO electoral votes.

15. This guy had a 54% disapproval rating half way through his term.

16. In 2000, this candidate lost his ‘home’ state and, thus, the election.

17. This sitting president had a 90% approval rating 20 months before he lost his re-election bid.

18. Finally, a little controversy! What do you think: Did Bush wear a secret earpiece during the debates? Was Rove giving him the answers? Remember, this is the president who said, "We need an energy bill that encourages consumption."

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ANSWERS

1. John F. Kennedy (1960).

2. Lyndon B. Johnson (1968).

3. George Romney, father of Mitt. Governor of MI. His poll numbers

went from a high of 30% in February, 1967 to a low of 7% after New

Hampshire in February, 1968.

4. Willard.

5. Goldwater’s margin of loss was 22.6; McGovern’s was 23.2.

6. Harry Truman, 1/11/52. [Slightly less than Nixon’s before he left

office.]

7. 69%.

8. John Ashbrook.

9. Geo. Wallace.

10. Ronald Reagan. Total votes at the convention – Ford: 1187; Reagan:

1187.

11. George H.W. Bush.

12. R. Nixon in 1972.

13. Ron Paul.

14. Ross Perot.

15. William J. Clinton.

16. Albert Gore.

17. George H.W. Bush. Rating on 3/4/91.

18. Absolutely, YES.