# What's the most recent US presidential election where you can't remember who the loser was?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-recent-us-presidential-election-where-you-cant-remember-who-the-loser-was/718049>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 19, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-recent-us-presidential-election-where-you-cant-remember-who-the-loser-was/718049 "2015-04-19T17:24:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-recent-us-presidential-election-where-you-cant-remember-who-the-loser-was/718049/61 "2015-04-21T21:54:11Z")

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> [@ftg](#):
>
> 1. Can’t remember who Hoover beat off the top of my head. Basically quite fuzzy from then back.

Ditto.

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**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-recent-us-presidential-election-where-you-cant-remember-who-the-loser-was/718049/62 "2015-04-21T21:58:34Z")

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> [@BigT](#):
>
> I have no idea who G.H.W. Bush went up against the first time. In fairness, I was 3 at the time.

Michael Dukakis is undoubtedly the least remembered of any major party candidate in my adult lifetime (I’m 56). Most of the other defeated candidates either served as vice president (Mondale and Gore), ran for president more than once (Gore, Dole, and McCain), had long and relatively well publicized careers as Senators (Dole, McCain, and Kerry), or held important office after losing the election (Kerry). Dukakis did none of the above.

Thirty years from now, as the generation that remembers living through the 1988 election (me) dies off, I predict that Dukakis will be a very common answer to this question.

In _another_ generation possibly Romney will be viewed the same way, depending on what he does with the rest of his life.

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**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2015, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-recent-us-presidential-election-where-you-cant-remember-who-the-loser-was/718049/63 "2015-04-22T16:00:26Z")

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_Originally Posted by ftg View Post  
1928. Can’t remember who Hoover beat off the top of my head. Basically quite fuzzy from then back._

I come from a Catholic family in New York, and the older generation would never let me forget that:

1. New York governor Al Smith, the Democratic nominee, was the first Catholic nominee of a major party, and that he lost in large part because of anti-Catholic sentiment

2. We Catholics were LUCKY he lost, lest the looming Great Depression be blamed on us Papists

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