Who was the best unsuccessful Presidency-contender?

Don't, Asherman - though you did indeed miss the original question again, your analyses are no less welcome ;-)

On W.J. Bryan, Jespah, he was a bit of a tragic figure, wasn't he? I don't know about presidential elections before him, but noone after him tried to become President three times, no less, and was defeated every time. With inreasing margins, at that.

"When Moses from the mountain came, 'twas 'nough to make one laugh, Goldbugs were round upon the ground, praying to their golden calf. [..] In heaven there's no millionaires, So the Good Book doth tell; They may be down with Satan, Monopolizing hell. Watch them close if they are there, They may you also fleece; Make them pay their bills, They've got wealth right from the poor they squeeze."

<grins>

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/specials/elections/1900/featured_article1.html

Also features such appeals to the voters as:

"Billy! Billy! Billy! Billy! O thou dear Nebraska lily, We will knock Mark Hanna silly And will make his pals feel chilly In November! With our Billy, with our Billy, Billy Bryan!"

or, as the McKinley followers would have retorted:

"I had a dream the other night, I cannot tell you why, Sir; I dreamed I saw Abe Lincoln's ghost A-shining through the sky, Sir. Our starry flag was in his hand, A crown was on his head, Sir, A smile was on his haloed face, And this is what he said, Sir:

McKinley, McKinley, Loyal votes shall win thee, Four years more on the White House floor, Hurrah for Bill McKinley!"

Just to ignore the question myself this time, in terms of the elections (that these contenders lost) themselves, the "most successful" candidates were - and I'm sure this is the only occassion for them to ever be mentioned in the same breath - Al Gore and Nixon. Nixon scored 49,6% and was beaten (in what was most probably foul play) by only a tenth of a percentage point, by Kennedy. Gore had, at 48,3%, a 0,2% lead in the popular vote.

I changed the poll to include Fishin's vote, btw.

Actually, you could add a few (but you can't, because the poll only allows for a maximum of 10 options) -

Pat Paulsen
Gus Hall
Angela Davis (she may have just run for VP with Gus Hall; I can't recall right now)
John Anderson
and my fave, Paul Tsongas

Tell me about it!

You don't wanna know with how many options I started. And then - b/c the FAQ here nowhere says how many options are possible - I had to take them out one by one in a process of trial and elimination. Grrr... :wink:



that makes you a vote for "other"

I remember Tsongas - the ultimate nice guy. I remember this CNN interview where he was queried about his "no Santa Clause" (was that it?) line - how much further he planned to use it, considering it wasnt the most likely vote-winner - and he answered, for as long as it'll work ... a little while later, alas, it stopped working, as it had been clear it would ...

He would've been a good president, probably - but not necessarily for the US - it wasnt his country, really, was it? Too much of Texas in it, too little Mass. ... :wink:

I would consider voting for Debs in this poll here simply b/c, though I'm not a socialist myself, I believe every country does need and deserve its own socialist tradition, and America's socialist tradition has been lost and forgotten for too long. Barring the incidental Progressive appearance, the Socialists were the only real Third Party of significance in the 20th century - they did better than Nader for twenty years, you know ...

My vote is for Perot on his first run. Had he kept from being stupid and pulling out of the race and then re-entering, I think he would have been very successful in winning. His choice of a running mate was a mixed bag. The uninformed thought he was a dolt, the informed knew that he was very intelligent and a CMH recipient.