#49) Flipping Pennies
[Note about this transcript -- it is approximately the same as what is said in the video -- the same material is covered, though the video might be more fun to watch.] [Mel starts at the white board, writing notes as he goes along.] Hello, and welcome back to "Always Be Better" with Mel Windham. Today we're going to do something fun ... an experiment. But first, during this exciting election year, let's consider a claim from the 2020 election. From 1980 to 2016 (10 elections), there were 19 counties that successfully voted for the candidate who won the presidency. That is, they all voted for Reagan in the 80s, then Bush Senior, Clinton, W Bush, Obama, and finally Trump in 2016. An amazing feat. These are called bellwether counties, because they seem to "predict" the national outcome. Perhaps they are purple and more sensitive to the overall national trends -- nobody quite knows what makes these counties so special. They're just really good at picking t