You know who wins less often than sitting Senators?

[MonkeyFunk]

Candidates who have won their party's nomination, then lost the election.

Nixon did it.

Grover Cleveland did it (but he had already served once as President).

I can't think of anybody else who managed to accomplish this running under the current party system and electoral rules.

I'm not saying that neither Gore nor Kerry could win - just pointing out that people who use the historical fact that Senators rarely win should be aware that it's far more rare for a previously-failed candidate to win.

[WCGreen]

1. Kennedy was a Senator....

Truman was a Senator...

[emulatorloo]

2. I say the more the merrier - Whoever wants to run outta run

in spite of the odds.

I would love to see Al Gore in a debate again.

[demrabble]

3. Past Performance Does Not Indicate The Future

What has happened in the past happened in the past.

There were always certain circumstances that contributed to what happened in the past.

I think our focus should be on the future -- not on the past.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. Well, we had never had a chimpanzee for president

before either, and look what happened. :evilgrin:

[Recursion]

5. They're 3 and 2, which is a better record than senators

WH Harrison (lost in 1836, won in 1840), Cleveland, and Nixon have all done it. Also, all three were out of government entirely after their loss.

Dewey and Bryan both got nominated and lost twice. Unless I'm missing other two-time also-rans, that's 3 successes to 2 failures; not awful odds.

I reiterate from my historical roundup here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2853634
that cabinet secretaries have a 100% track record.

[dsc]

6. Stevenson also ran twice and lost

but that still isn't a horrible record.

[demrabble]

7. Adlai E. Stevenson

Adlai E. Stevenson was a Democrat nominated in 1952 and 1956.

He lost to Dwight Eisenhower both times.

[Recursion]

11. Thanks, I thought I was missing one

Thanks to dsc too.

OK, so that's 3 and 3, which ties Senators.

[godai]

8. How many others ran again and lost?

Gore and Kerry lost VERY close elections, Gore likely 'won'. This is similar to Nixon. Do you know others who ran/lost, then ran/lost a second time? I don't know but I'm wondering if the percentage may be a lot hogher (run a second time and win) than sitting Senators, who don't often win. Getting the nomination the 2nd time seems fairly rare.

It's unfortunate but we live in a rovian world where flip/flop is a guaranteed campaign tactic and this works well with Senators voting records.

[Recursion]

13. 3 that I can find (thanks to some help upthread)

William Jennings Bryan, Thomas Dewey, and Adlai Stevenson.

Oddly enough, Dewey's and Stevenson's 4 losses were in 4 consecutive elections, and Bryan was approaching Lyndon Larouche status for unsuccessful presidential bids; it's just he managed to get the Dem nomination for two of them.

[David in Canada]

16. Actually, Bryan was nominated thrice...

William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1896, 1900 and 1908. He lost the first two times to William McKinley and the last time to William Howard Taft.

He subsequently served as Secretary of State in the Wilson Administration and then served as the defense counsel in the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He died soon after the trial ended in 1925.

[Taylor Mason Powell]

9. Of course, Al Gore is not in this category.

He won the 2000 election. Everybody always seems to forget this!

[Kutjara]

10. Except that Gore won the election of course.

by about 500,000 votes, if I remember correctly.

[MonkeyFunk]

14. well

if only we had popular elections for President. But we don't.

George Bush WAS elected in the Electoral College.

[Recursion]

15. No, Florida's votes were unconstitutionally allocated, just like in 1876

And Joltin' Joe Lieberman said he wouldn't support a fight for them because, after all, * was a "good guy".

[in_cog_ni_to]

12. Gore won. n/t