Measured in terms of the personal wealth of the 4 candidates, is 2004 the richest ever? If not now, when?
I recently saw an article listing the personal wealth of several Presidents at the time they were inaugerated. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep it to help answer your question but one surprising fact I remember was FDR’s worth; $11,000,000 (and that was adjusted for inflation). I always thought Roosevelt was one of the richest Presidents, but in fact he wasn’t even the richest candidate when he was elected in 1932 (Hoover had over four times as much money).
In terms of the total wealth of the four candidates, it’s hard to say. Do you count Teresa Kerry’s fortune as part of John’s net worth? In comparing against past candidates, do you count the Kennedy and Roosevelt family fortunes as part of FDR and JFK’s net worth? If you count third party candidates, mega-rich 1992 candidate Ross Perot trumped the entire 2004 field, plus Teresa, by himself.
The striking thing about the 2004 field, however, is not its total net worth but the fact that all four major party candidates are very wealthy. Per Forbes Magazine, all have a net worth of at least $10 million. Even if you adjust for inflation and count family fortunes, this has never happened before.
What about the 1960 Presidential race? Kennedy, Johnson, and Lodge were all very wealthy men.
Right, but Nixon wasn’t. If you try to compare the sum of the wealth of the four candidates, you’ll run into the definitional problems mentioned above. But by the arguably more relevant standard of comparing the least wealthy of the four candidates, 2004 wins hands down.