A Slim Majority

There is a TIME article that lead with the sentence "Ever since a slim majority outlawed gay marriage in California, opponents have waged national protests and petitions, urging the judicial system to reconsider the results of the Nov. 4 referendum."

Last I heard, Prop 8 had passed by about 400,000 votes. Turns out it was over a half million. Slim Margin? Maybe, compared to what? I thought I'd compare it to President-elect Obama's victory, which I had not heard described as a slim margin.

Here are the results:




Obama garnered 52.69% of the votes cast for President. (66,744,742 out of 126,662,211) Prop 8 garnered 52.15% of the votes cast for or against it.

So Obama's popular vote majority was half a percentage point higher than the slim majority Prop 8 got. How was his win described by TIME?

Landslide.


(Note: In case you're curious about my stance on Prop 8... I view that marriage is a sacred bond between a man and a woman, a sacrament. As a sacrament, it is an article of religious faith and none of the government's damn business. My God says a man marrying a man ain't right, but your God may see it differently. That's a theological discussion that I don't want the government involved in.)