Which of these defeated candidates would have made a better president...

[WI_DEM]

Poll question: Which of these defeated candidates would have made a better president...

than the man who won?

p.s.
I have purposely kept both Al Gore and John Kerry off this list because 1) there is evidence that they actually won their elections, particularly Gore and 2) It's a given that most anybody would have been better than Dumbya.

p.s.s.
I'm only going back to 1952.

[GrumpyGreg]

1. I loved Adlai !

[WildEyedLiberal]

2. Adlai is very cool

But I voted for Humphrey, because Nixon was so wretched, whereas Eisenhower was the last decent Republican president ever. (I don't count Ford as either decent or non-decent, but more of a nonentity.)

[JohnKleeb]

3. I voted for Humphrey too

The man deserves a lot of credit for promoting civil rights in to the democratic party platform in 1948, "it is time for the democratic party to step out of the darkness of states rights and in to the sunshine of human rights." It's said if Humphrey had just one more day to campaign against Nixon, he likely would have won. He was closing the gap on Nixon fast. Too bad really he would have made an awful president, because I realize that most people didn't like his Cold War Hawkishness but domestically the man was a true sucessor to what LBJ did.

[MarianJack]

4. I Was a McGovernite in '72,...

...and worked for him in 3 primary states (PA, NJ, NY), but I had to go with HHH.

1968 was winnable. 1972 was not.

[WI_DEM]

5. Question about '72

Had the "Eagleton affair" not errupted--might McGovern have made it close?

[MarianJack]

8. Close? I Don't Think So,...

...but perhaps a 1988ish margin with about 42-44% & 6 to 9 states, instead of the 60%+ & 49 state wipeout that it was.

I don't think ANY democrat would have come close in '72. There was HUGE media bias towards nixon in that one, too. Don't let ANYBODY convince you otherwise. They focused on the McGovern campaign's ineptitude and the nixon administration's corruption got a huge pass until into his second term.

In fairness though, in my opinion, the media didn't officially become the propaganda arm of the rnc until the '84 election.

PEACE!

[Liberal In Texas]

10. I met McGovern while working as a crew member producing some of his

TV commercials for his presidental run. A good decent man with good ideas.

The question here is, "would he have made a better president?" We certainly would have been out of 'Nam sooner with fewer dead and no doubt there woudn't have been the scandals in the WH that Nixon gave us.

[MarianJack]

11. I met him in PA,...

...and 2 months later in NY. He REMEMBERED me! I was so psyched! After all, I was a snot nosed 17 year old kid! (sorry, 17 year olds. I'm talking about ME, not you.)

He would have been a MUCH better president than nixon, but realistically, '72 was never in play for the Democrats. HHH came SOOO close. That's why I voted for him.

[Liberal In Texas]

12. I remember the "Dump the Hump" meme going around. LOL.

HHH wasn't liberal enough for many of us.

Those were the days my friend...

Ah, to be getting old and not as able to take up the guantlet as well. C'mon youngsters!

[Warpy]

6. Stevenson and Humphrey both represent the biggest lost

opportunities for the working class and by extension the middle class.

Eisenhower wasn't dreadful, he just wasn't great. Stevenson would have been remembered as one of the greatest presidents ever had he won the office. He was truly an amazing man.

Humphrey was the last true liberal to run and would have extended Johnson's poverty programs and made sure the oil inflation wasn't blamed on working people (whose wages lagged far BEHIND inflation instead of causing it).

Instead, my entire adult life has been marred by a succession of dreadful Repugs and dreary southern conservative Democrats.

I'm sick of it.

[MarianJack]

9. I 99% agree with you,...

...but I will amend that to say that HHH was the '68 nominee and McGovern the '72 nominee.

Chronologically, HE was the last true liberal.

BTW, they both had miles more integrity than nixon and any of the wingnut rethuglicans who've served since!

[Trish1168]

7. Big no on Michael Dukakis

I'm from MA, and his state was struggling. The budget was bloated, and our bond rating was junk bond status. We had a huge deficit, and he was cutting the budgets to the state colleges (I was in school). We were paying more and more and getting less and less.

After he was governor, we got Bill Weld, and he cut the budget, balanced the budget and even created a rainy day fund (for economic down turns). On top of that, he improved the registry of motor vehicles (they got more efficient) and lowered fees. He did not do much for state colleges (no governor has).

If Dukakis had run the country like he ran his state, he would be the fiscal equivalent to George Bush (but without all that borrowing....he would have taxed us instead).

I'm a social liberal, fiscal conservative (pro-corporate regulation). So, I'm registered as an independent.