Time for our regular look at the popularity of the U.S. presidential candidates.
We've tallied up the searches for each of the three most-publicized candidates: George W. Bush, Al Gore, and Pat Buchanan. Then we've compared them to other items which got nearly the same number of searches.
The six categories of comparison -- TV show, hotel, founding father, country, automobile, and entertainer -- were chosen by whim, incidentally, rather than by any logical pattern. The results:
Category: TV Show
Bush: Days of Our Lives
Gore: Rugrats
Buchanan: All In the Family
Category: Hotel
Bush: Marriott
Gore: Comfort Inn
Buchanan: La Quinta
Category: Founding Father
Bush: Benjamin Franklin
Gore: George Washington
Buchanan: Alexander Hamilton
Category: Country
Bush: Nigeria
Gore: New Zealand
Buchanan: Kazakhstan
Category: Automobile
Bush: Volvo
Gore: Mercedes
Buchanan: Pontiac Sunfire
Category: Entertainer
Bush: Mel Gibson
Gore: Drew Barrymore
Buchanan: Lionel Richie
As for numbers, here's the percentage of the search "vote" received by each:
Gore: 49%
Bush: 47%
Buchanan: 4%
In other words, Gore is back on top after losing his lead to Bush in our last tally. They've been trading the lead for months, in fact. Buchanan, to be frank, seems to have about as much chance of catching the presidency as the Coyote has of catching the Roadrunner.
Note: All search spellings and variations are included in each candidate's total; for instance, the Al Gore entry includes searches for both Al Gore and Gore campaign. 85% of all "George Bush" searches are assigned to candidate George W. Bush; the other 15% are assumed to be for his father, ex-President Bush. This list reflects actual terms entered into our search engine by Lycos users during the week ending April 22nd; it does not imply endorsement by Lycos of any candidate or political position. Please do not base your own decision to run for president on this list.
