The fatal football

The most innocent of goofs can be percieved as politically fatal. You could have asked Robert Stanfield, the former head of Canada's federal Tory party, who died earlier this week, whether this was so. Political boffins in this linked story argue that this photo of Robert Stanfield dropping a football during the 1974 election caused the Liberals to win, under their younger leader Pierre Trudeau.

Hmm...it would seem that some wise journalist should go into the newspaper morgue and pull polls and letters to the editor from before the football drop, and after the football drop, to see if this theory bears out. My guess...he was also low in the polls before dropping the footbal.