I was wondering about that myself–sounded off to me, but I was only 4 at the time, so I wouldn’t know. Perhaps pjacks is thinking of Perot, Clinton, Bush? Perot actually did lead opinion polls for a bit there, until he dropped out of the race in July, and popped back in.
trump is kind of Perot with a party behind him. If Ross had waited four years and ran as a Republican…
God bless the SDMB.
Right, Perot is the only third party candidate ever to lead a Presidential race at any point (in the era for which we have polling data, obviously).
George Wallace and Strom Thurmond are the only ones in that period to win any states, if that’s what you’re after.
I must have misremembered, as the extent of my knowledge came from some personal google research a couple years ago after I found out he existed & ran for president.
His Wikipedia page states that he polled as high as 26% against Reagan & Carter, which is not unimpressive. But it seems like the campaign could never get higher than that, & obviously his support cratered over time.
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Yeah, though I think it’s worth pointing out that Teddy Roosevelt, running as a Progressive, got more raw and electoral college votes than the third place Republican in the 1912 Presidential election.
I don’t think it is. It’s true in most cases, but there are outliers in recent memory, like the Clinton-Bush-Perot election. If Perot didn’t briefly drop out, I really think it could have been much more interesting. I do think he might have won, but I was only in high school at the time, so my high school brain may be distorting my memories.
My parents were for Anderson because he wasn’t as hard-right wacky as Reagan, and because they thought Carter was in over his head as President. I, as a proto-Democrat too young to vote yet, was for Carter despite his many shortcomings, but couldn’t persuade them otherwise.
Updating this thread:
John B. Anderson, who made quixotic run for president the year Reagan won the White House, dies at 95
Ah, I hadn’t heard that. Thanks. Here’s NPR’s coverage: John Anderson, Independent For President In 1980, Dies At 95 : The Two-Way : NPR
This assumes that the person he wanted to avoid most was Reagan. It’s potentially true that he was equally, or even more so, motivated to avoid Carter.
I dislike the assertion that a vote for a 3rd Party candidate is a “wasted” vote. 3rd-party candidates have on several occasions in American history produced a changed result in the November election, compared to what would probably have occurred had they not run. Ignoring for a moment the insanity of 1860, we can look to the outcomes of 1912 and 1992 for easy examples. Then, of course, there is the 2000 fiasco.
The question you must ask yourself is what particularly you want in the way of ranked outcomes. If you rank the outcomes A, B, C, but by voting A, you help ensure C, then yes, you might want to re-think that vote. But if by voting A, you help ensure B, then you’re probably ok with voting 3rd-party.
A third-party candidate can also have impact beyond the immediate election by forcing the two parties to look at issues/constituencies that they have not given attention to.
I was only 16 at the time, so not a voter, but I was an Anderson supporter.
To this day, I cannot fathom why Reagan was considered a Great Communicator. I thought from the beginning that he was both dangerous and not particularly bright (compared to what we have now, he was a calm, measured, genius of a president). And I was deeply discomfited by Carter’s apparent incompetence and overt Christianity. In retrospect, he did a couple of really good things, like hiring Volcker, beginning airline deregulation, and championing energy conservation. And his Christianity was, I think, of the real Jesus-based variety, where taking care of the poor is more important than making life easier for the rich. Reagan’s alliance with the Moral Majority crowd was also terrifying, for that matter.
Anderson seemed to be progressive on social issues and reasonable on fiscal ones. To a 16 year old without a great deal of political or policy knowledge, he just seemed sane, and that was good enough for me.
He’s the last candidate with an ® after his name that I ever supported. And I’ve never voted for one, for which I blame Reagan.
I thought he was the lead singer for Yes. Turns out he spelled it differently and was born here.