Actually the most interesting bit of psephological anorakery about this year’s election so far is Crooked Timber’s piece on the time zone biases of the candidates. The only Democratic candidate for either President or Vice-President who was living outside the Central or Eastern time zones (or at least the territory which now forms them) when nominated was Senator Joseph Lane of Oregon (who???), and he doesn’t really count. Meanwhile the Republicans have had a more westerly candidate on the ticket two times out of three (and this year of course that goes for both of them).

It’s probably not that significant, of course. But NB that while the Republicans won nine of the fourteen elections where they had a Western candidate, they won only one of the six where neither of their candidates was a Westerner (1988; losses in 1936, 1944, 1976, 1992 and 1996).