Losing candidates: a memory quiz

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

The other day at work we were talking about Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates and we ended up going back through the list. We didn’t have any reference works so we had to do it from memory. The losers were naturally harder to remember than the winners. I did the best; I was able to name every losing Vice Presidential candidate back to 1956 and every losing Presidential candidate back to 1940.

So in a pointless test of memory, how far back can you go in naming the losing candidates in reverse sequential order? Rule #1 - Memory only, no looking up the answers. Rule #2 - You can post the years but not the names of any candidates, that would ruin it for others.

2

What losers are you talking about? There are many presidential and vice-presidential candidates for every election. Do we need to name them all?

3

Just off the top of my head I was able to get back to 1932. At that point I can skip some elections but my mind starts to fade.

VP I would say 1952.

For some reason I tend to get all the guys who ran against FDR in the wrong order.

4

Of course.

5

oh i am awful at this - i can barely get back to '76 for Prez without skipping at least one, but can get '72, '68, '60, and that’s it (History/Social Studies was my worst subject)
Forget about VP losers - I can name exactly 3 from the last 48 years

6

Of course. If you can’t name all the Green Party Vice Presidential candidates for the last fifty years, how can you call yourself an informed voter?

7

I was able to get the Demo and Repub Pres and VP candidates back through 1908, which is exactly 100 years worth of elections. This won’t surprise readers of my GQ posts, who know that I’m a complete geek. Even so, I was unable to remember the name of Alton Parker’s running mate in 1904.

8

VP candidates- 1948.

Pres candidates - all of them.

9

Your e-penises are clearly larger than mine. I qualify my statement by saying I was born in 1976, in the hopes that you are all much older than I am and that I can claim ignorance based on my age.

Losing Presidential candidates I know:
2004
2000
1996
1992
1988
1984
1980
1948

Losing Vice Presidential candidates I know:
2004
2000
1992
1988

:smack:

10

That was when Truman lost to Dewey, right? :stuck_out_tongue:

Zev Steinhardt

11

Losing Presidential candidates - back to 1928, excepting 1944. Including losing third-party candidates who cleared >5% of the popular vote. (Seemed like a good cutoff.)

Losing veep candidates - only back to 1960, and missed two 3rd-party veep nominees in that span. (Same cutoff.)

12

Not counting anyone who lost the last two elections…

Losing Presidential candidates- All losing Republicans, all losing Democrats from 1828 onward (including both 1860 candidates), all losing Whigs, and the following third party candidates: Know-Nothing (1856), Constitutional Union (1860), Greenback (1880, 1884), Populist (1892), Socialist (1908, 1912, 1920, 1928-1956), all three Progressive Parties (1912, 1924, 1948-1952), Union (1936), States Rights (1948), American Independent (1968, 1972), the politicians who ran independent campaigns in 1976 and 1980, the billionaire who ran as an independent in 1992, Reform (1996), Green (1996).

Losing Vice-Presidential candidates- Republican (1912, 1932-1940, 1948, 1960-), Democratic (1896, 1920, 1924, 1952-), Constitutional Union (1860), Populist (1896), all three Progressive Parties (1912, 1924, 1948-1952), Union (1936), States Rights (1948), American Independent (1968), the running mate of the politician that ran as an independent in 1980, the running mate of the billionaire that ran as an independent in 1992, Reform (1996).

13

17 year old here, so I’ll probably do very badly.

2000 - Al Gore and Joe Lieberman
1996 - Bob Dole
1992 - George H.W. Bush
1988 - Michael Dukakis
1984 -
1980 - Jimmy Carter
1976 - Gerald Ford
1972 -
1968 - George McGovern
1964 - Don’t know
1960 - Richard Nixon
1956 - Adlai Stevenson?

14

Sorry - can a mod edit out the names? My reading comprehension is worse than my knowledge of history.

15

For being 17 you did pretty well.

I can get all of the candidates for President and VP back to World War II.

16

If you want to check, here’s a list of candidates going back to 1856.