# When was the latest a viable political candidate has emerged for a party?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-latest-a-viable-political-candidate-has-emerged-for-a-party/473072>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [November 17, 2008, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-latest-a-viable-political-candidate-has-emerged-for-a-party/473072 "2008-11-17T02:13:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-latest-a-viable-political-candidate-has-emerged-for-a-party/473072/41 "2008-11-18T15:10:53Z")

</div>

> [@Captain\_Carrot](#):
>
> Well, keep in mind that we didn’t use to have 2-year campaigns for the Presidency. Once upon a time, people declared their candidacy the winter of the year before the election, instead of two days after the midterms.

Even if they did, there must of been speculation about who could run. It just seems like the Democratic party right now has a decent pipeline of fresh talent that will keep the party going wheras the Republican party is really suffering from a dearth of prospective presidential figures.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kenner116](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecb155/32.png) [@kenner116](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenner116)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-latest-a-viable-political-candidate-has-emerged-for-a-party/473072/42 "2008-11-18T15:38:09Z")

</div>

> [@Shalmanese](#):
>
> Even if they did, there must of been speculation about who could run. It just seems like the Democratic party right now has a decent pipeline of fresh talent that will keep the party going wheras the Republican party is really suffering from a dearth of prospective presidential figures.

I expect the next Republican presidential nominees to be significantly stronger than the last bunch. I can’t imagine them being worse than Romney, Giuliani, Huckabee and Thompson. Jindal and Pawlenty would be much stronger candidates than McCain/Palin were. Jindal isn’t widely known yet, so I guess you could say he will “come out of nowhere” and secure the nomination. I expect a close Obama vs. Jindal election in 2012.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-the-latest-a-viable-political-candidate-has-emerged-for-a-party/473072.md?page=2)