Top 5 Americans who should have been president by never got to be?

[ZombieNixon]

For whatever reason; didn't run, lost election, assassinated...

My five:

1. Robert Kennedy
2. Benjamin Franklin
3. Adlai Stevenson
4. Al Gore
5. Hubert Humphrey

Who be yours?

[TaleWgnDg]

1. Contemporary times? Why of course, Mario Cuomo. n/t

[Spinzonner]

2. Samuel J. Tilden

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0101175.html

[autorank]

3. Gary Hard (D) CO...damn, he would have been good.

He's our Charles Stewart Parnell.

[Spinzonner]

7. Gary Hart

but good subconscious misspelling

[ZombieNixon]

10. LOL!

:D

[autorank]

33. Hey, that's what Donna Rise called him. A hard man for a

dangerous world! Hmmm...need to read these things before I post them.

[mark414]

4. Eugene Debs

[Union Thug]

12. I second you rDebs!

[Debs]

36. Obviously

Another vote for Debs. Stevenson. Robert Kennedy, Tilden, and Gore

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

5. RFK, Ben Franklin, heck I can't top that list.

[Bertha Venation]

6. Adlai Stevenson tops my list.

Benjamin Franklin would've added a lurid chapter to the office's fine tradition of housing "lady's men."

Oh -- and I'd add Howard Dean, but he's a young man, and I have hope.

[ZombieNixon]

8. Back when Franklin could have been president...

everyone would have known about it and no one would have cared. Remember, there was no Faux News in 1800.

[Bertha Venation]

28. Good point. Then, too, many were slave owners. And then there's the

venerable T.J. . . .

[Lizzie Borden]

9. I don't agree with Humphrey due to the war,

but I also would have to list R. Kennedy, Franklin,Stevenson, Gore and McGovern due to the war and the fact that Nixon was an absolute CROOK!. I'll never get over that one.

[greendog]

11. Robert La Follett

n/t

[Seabiscuit]

39. I knew his grandon. He was a pathetic falling-down drunk.

[Alex146]

13. MLK

[imenja]

14. good reasons for some of those

Humphrey never came out against the war because of fear of reprisal by LBJ. His loss was in part a result of his own lack of political courage.
Al Gore doesn't make my list of top five anything.
Franklin was a bit of a pain, obsessed with empiricism above all else and displayed an amazing lack of compassion, particularly when it came to his own family.

[ZombieNixon]

18. >>Humphrey never came out against the war

>>because of fear of reprisal by LBJ. His loss was in part a result of his own lack of political courage.

I agree, however, had he won the election, I think he would have been a good president. I'm dealing with outlandish hypothetical situations, here. I'd put my dad on the list, but he's not an American citizen.

Still, good points on your part.

[orpupilofnature57]

15. ditto, just about in that order.

[Annus Horribilis]

16. My Top 5

1) Robert Kennedy
2) Howard Dean
3) Al Gore
4) George McGovern
5) Benjamin Franklin

[BrotherBuzz]

17. Henry Clay

Earl Warren
Bobby Seale
Richard Clough Anderson Jr.
Will Rogers

[FtWayneBlue]

19. I would add Dennis Kucinich to that list

too bad he got dumped by the "leadership"

[Carolab]

23. Howard Dean

he "got ROYALLY dumped" by the leadership.

[Tweed]

20. William Jennings Byran

[ruggerson]

21. George McGovern

Hands down.

The US would be a much different and much better country had he been elected President.

[Carolab]

22. Paul Wellstone or Eugene McCarthy n/t

[Seabiscuit]

41. Paul Wellstone for sure; JFK Jr. soon after.

Talking relatively recently, of course.

RFK was my choice by far in '68 (after initally campaigning for "Clean Gene" McCarthy).

[American Tragedy]

24. I would replace Hubert Humphrey with George McGovern

Humphrey deserved to lose for his illogical, immoral, and politically suicidal stance on the war in Vietnam.

I wasn't alive then, but my father was crushed when he saw the Democratic candidate slavishly defending Vietnam, especially since Dad had just seen several of his friends killed for absolutely nothing, and he himself was about to face the 1969 draft. He was so upset, in fact, that he voted Republican for the first and only time in his life in that election, just to punish Humphrey for betraying liberal Democrats.

Under the circumstances, I might have even done the same thing. It's easy to become a one-issue voter when you think that you're either going to die or be forced to kill someone else.

[FightinNewDem]

25. Two New Englanders

Ed Muskie and Paul Tsongas.

[mcscajun]

26. Start with Robert F. Kennedy...

...then, in no particular order:

George McGovern
Edward M. Kennedy
Al Gore
Julian Bond

[hellhathnofury]

27. Well...

1. Robert Kennedy
2. William Jennings Bryan
3. Daniel Webster
4. Al Smith
Oh and for shits and kicks, 5. Huey Long

[Hippo_Tron]

30. Huey Long is a major thumbs down, which is regrettable

Huey Long was a populist and could've been an incredible governor and eventually president. Unfortunately at the same time he was a corrupt sack of shit, rigged elections to put his friends in to power, etc.

[catbert836]

29. Mine

1. Alexander Hamilton
2. Robert F. Kennedy
3. John F. Kerry
4. Al Gore
5. William Jennings Bryan

not in that order though.

[no_hypocrisy]

31. Henry Wallace.

Adlai Stevenson
Mario Cuomo
Al Gore
Jimmy Carter (Round II)

[Taxloss]

32. Gore Vidal, Garrison Keillor, RFK, Edmund Muskie,

and Robert Redford.

[Comicstripper]

34. Mine:

1)Al Gore, because he won
2)John Kerry, because he shoulda
3)Samuel Tilden, because he won
4)Robert Kennedy, because he was shot
5)Ben Franklin, because he seems like he should be.

[rfkrfk]

35. Robert Kennedy,,,

RFK
Charles Linburgh
George Marshall
Bob Kerrey
Neil Armstrong

just for the record, I do not necessarily agree with the
politics of these people.
...
nothing special about Al Gore, Jr. , imo.

[AliciaKeyedUp]

44. I agree with RFK

But not Lindberg. He was too friendly with the Third Reich.

[muse]

37. John Kerry

[nascarblue]

45. Skull and Bones Kerry?

Everyone is fighting for Kerry, and I understand it...the lesser of two evils.. but you got to remember something...Kerry is highly active in Skull and Bones. For Kerry to go into this election up 10 points just by being the candidate, and then lose it...that should say a lot.

[T Town Jake]

38. My avatar. eom.

(n/t)

[Dees]

40. Stevenson, McGovern, Humphrey, Udall, Gore..nt

[nascarblue]

42. Jerry Brown

He was assassinated by the right wing corporate press machine very similar to the way Howard Dean was. The only difference is that Brown truly was a pure leftist democrat. Dean is at best a centrist. Shows you how much we've drifted to the right. I blame Clinton as much as I blame Bush. But then again, the House, Senate, DOD, FBI, CIA, ONI, will NEVER allow a true democrat to have power. The last one was Kennedy and we all know what happened to him.. (Bush Sr.)

[Feathered Fish]

43. This is a good question

In no particular order:

Adlai Stevenson
Eugene McCarthy
George McGovern
Martin Luther King
Robert Kennedy