1988 wasn’t even close. HW Bush won the popular vote by almost eight percentage points.
1992 was interesting because no candidate won a majority of the popular vote (thanks to Ross Perot), but Clinton won the Electoral College handily.
1996 wasn’t even close, either. Clinton beat Dole by eight and a half percentage points.
2000 was incredibly close, of course. It came down to a few thousand votes in Florida.
2004 was pretty close, as well. It came down to Ohio.
2008 wasn’t close.
2012 was closer.
2016 was very close. Not only did Hillary win the popular vote, but she lost the popular vote by a few thousand votes in three states.
Unlike past campaigns, a little bit here and a little bit there were likely enough to sway the result. A little disinformation from Russia could have tipped the scales.
