The last time a Democratic General ran for President

[Mattforclark]

was 1864. His name was George McClellan. He came close to defeating Lincoln. Lincoln.

Compare and contrast-

Bush--------------------------------------------------Lincoln

"The Republican campaign warned the Union: "Don’t swap horses in the middle of the stream." They went beyond that innocuous slogan, however, to equate opposition to Lincoln and the Republicans with disloyalty to the Union. They papered the North with posters of Thomas Nast’s political cartoons, "The Chicago Platform" and "Compromise with the South," which depicted the Democrats essentially as traitors. A Republican pamphlet alleged there was a clandestine agreement between the Peace Democrats and the Confederates. In October, party officials distributed 10,000 copies of the report by the judge advocate general of the army, Joseph Holt, on secret societies of Confederate sympathizers in the North, implicitly associated with the Democratic party."

http://elections.harpweek.com/4Overview/overview-1864-1.htm

[WillyBrandt]

1. There is absolutely no analogy

There's nothing to learn from this. Clark is no McClellan--thank God. Bush is no Lincoln.

[Mattforclark]

2. It's still interesting though

All you have to do is substitue the word 'terrorist' for 'confederate.'

[fabius]

3. Wrong anyway. Sorry...

http://www.civilwarhome.com/hanbio.htm

Winfield Scott Hancock

1880

Defeated by Garfield

<snippet>

Remaining in the army, he assumed command of the Dept. of the East, with Hq at Governors Island, New York in 1877. He was a potential Democratic candidate for the presidency in 1868.In 1880 he was the nominee but was narrowly defeated by James Garfield. On February 9, 1886, he died at Governors Island while still in command of the Department of the East, and is buried in Montgomery Cemetery, Norristown.

<snip>

(Tucker, Glenn, Hancock: The Superb)
Source: "Who Was Who In The Civil War" by Stewart Sifakis

[Yupster]

4. Possible analogy

McClellan looked like a winner until Sherman took Atlanta, and Sheridan defeated Early and burned down the valley. Those battlefield victories turned the election into a landslide.

It could be that the election could just turn on who wins the last battle before the election.

[elperromagico]

5. Lincoln won 90.6% of the Electoral College in 1864,

which at the time was the biggest Electoral College victory in history, and is still the fifth biggest Electoral College victory (since 1824).

Lincoln won the popular vote with 55.02%, which was the second biggest popular vote victory at the time, and is still the thirteenth biggest popular vote victory (again, since 1824).

Compared to the four previous popular victories,
Taylor (1848) - 47.28%,
Pierce (1852) - 50.82%,
Buchanan (1856) - 45.28%,
Lincoln (1860) - 39.82%,
Lincoln's victory in 1864 was a veritable landslide.

I say this simply to point out that McClellan did not nearly win. Or maybe I just say it because I like numbers. I really don't know anymore...

[Yupster]

7. In the spring of 1864,

Lincoln told his cabinet that he would likely lose his reelection.

From January to April, there had been nothing but Confederate victories in 1864. From the Red River campaign ending in the Mansfield disaster in Louisiana, to Fort Pillow in Tennessee, to a battle (have to loook up name) in Mississippi, to another in Florida (name sounds almost the same as the one in Mississippi), Confederates were again winning everywhere. The worst was probably New Berne North Carolina where the Confederates surrounded and capyured the city and its entire garrison of 2,500.

Then the summer campaigns started and Grant pushed Lee into the trenches of Petersburg, and Sherman pushed Joe Johnston's Army of Tennessee right back to the Atlanta defenses.

Then the breakthroughs came just in time for the election. Sheridan burned down the Shenandoah Valley, the breadbasket of the Confederacy (make it so a crow would have to pack a lunch to fly across), and then the final crushing blow was the fall of Atlanta. They both happened right before the election, and all the sudden, the war was going great, and the defeats of the early part of the year were forgotten as minor skirmishes.

[elperromagico]

8. But he did not lose.

That is my point, and McClellan did not come close to beating him in the general election. The only opinion that matters is the opinion of the voters on election day, and the voters picked Lincoln by a wide margin.

[robsul82]

6. Republicans then...

...would be Democrats now. Republicans really can't even claim Lincoln as one of their own. Put it another way - do you think ANY Republican would free black people from slavery?

Later.

RJS