Best and worst Presidential nominees that lost the election

[Polybius]

Let's talk about candidates that ran for President and got their Party's nomination, but never became President. In order to qualify, they must have gotten the nomination. Let's not go too far back in time, so say 1964. Here's everyone that ran, got the nomination, but didn't win:

1964: Barry Goldwater
1968: Hubert Humphrey
1972: George McGovern
1984: Walter Mondale
1988: Michael Dukakis
1996: Bob Dole
2000: Al Gore
2004: John Kerry
2008: John McCain
2012: Mitt Romney
2016: Hillary Clinton

Hard to believe that there are only three Republicans on this list after 1964, but anyway my choice for the best is tough, since I view many people on this list to be very qualified. If I had to choose though, I'd pick Al Gore. I think he would have been fantastic on climate change, and possibly he would have prevented 9/11, because I'm sure he would have taken the threats more seriously.

Worst? This is close. Goldwater and McCain both were warmongers. One might have gotten us nuked though, so I pick Goldwater for the worst.

Footnote: Best Republican on this list? By far Bob Dole. I'm going to make a bold statement and say that in the past 60 years, Bob Dole is the greatest Republican nominee they have had, and that's counting their winners. I'd take him over Nixon, Ford, Reagan, both Bush's, and certainly over Trump. Romney would have been second.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your choices. Do tell!

[TygrBright]

1. HILLARY CLINTON 2016 n/t

[happybird]

3. +100 zillion

Edit: I should have commented
+2,864,974

[RockCreek]

2. Hilary Clinton, Mitt Romney. N/t

[Polybius]

4. Edited

I didn't have my coffee today.

[StevieM]

5. I could not possibly DISAGREE more with your opinion about Bob Dole.

He helped usher in the era of emerging Republican fascism. He was the one who started all the lying about Whitewater. That was a real turning point in American history.

Bob Dole was the original swift boater.

[Polybius]

7. I didn't say he was good

But certainly better than Nixon, Reagan, Trump or W. McCain we over-credit too much here. Yeah he went against his Party a lot, but he was a warmonger beyond imagination. Had he won, we would have been involved in every skirmish imaginable.

You can certainly make an argument that Ford or Romney was better. Who else?

[StevieM]

8. I think Dole was one of the three worst, along with Nixon and Trump.

Ford was probably the best of the bunch.

[blm]

6. McGovern and Kerry, then Gore and Clinton

would have been the best Dem presidents.

Dole worst of Republicans. He started the whole abortion issue as warfare.

[Chili]

9. I can never forget Dukakis and 1988

That was a bad year. Two serious campaign-killing events occurred, generated by the candidates themselves.

(1) Our Joe Biden. He made some mistakes that, today, would be ignored - or, at least, if he were republican, they'd be ignored. It should not have forced him to give up his campaign, but he thought it more important to keep Bork off the SC, which he did. But he was near his peak, then, had been considered presidential material for years. He may have won, he's was fiery back then. But hey, we got him now, and we REALLY need him now. That 8 years as VP to a great president cleans all that old insignificant crap right up.

(2) Gary Hart. Now what he did was just stupid. Pics of him with his mistress, then he dared the journalists to follow him. Good grief DUH. His ego flaw was not a good trait for a president any way, but he was very progressive. It was embarrassing, and a shame.

That left us with Al Gore, Paul Simon, Jesse Jackson, Dick Gephardt, and Michael Dukakis.

Looking back on it, Gore was very young, Simon a little too professor-ly, Jackson too controversial for the times, but he led the way for black candidates (Obama!), Gephardt was very smart, but lacked charisma, and Dukakis was just not a strong candidate - he wasn't tough enough, and fell into too many Atwater traps that someone like Hart would have avoided.

Just not a good election season for us.

[greenjar_01]

10. John Kerry should have won in 2004

Edwards was a drag on the ticket.

[Ferrets are Cool]

11. Al Gore didn't lose. It was stolen.

Things would have been so much different in America had they not stolen that one from us.

[Klaralven]

12. It appears that the candidate from the more populous state usually wins

Last edited Tue Nov 3, 2020, 03:32 PM - Edit history (1)

1964: Barry Goldwater - AZ loses to TX
1968: Hubert Humphrey - MN to CA
1972: George McGovern - SD to CA
1984: Walter Mondale - MN to CA
1988: Michael Dukakis - MA to GA
1996: Bob Dole - KS to AR
2000: Al Gore - TN to TX
2004: John Kerry - MA to TX
2008: John McCain - AZ to IL
2012: Mitt Romney - UT to IL
2016: Hillary Clinton - AR to NY

[Polybius]

13. Yikes

2020 Trump NY (or FL) vs Biden DE.