What would you call the worst presidential campaign by either Democratic or Republican??
Hillary Rodham Clinton, 2016
Oh, not even close. McCain screwed up 2008 worse than Clinton did in 2016.
But I’d say Dukakis in 1988 was pretty bad.
Nm
Define “worst.” Assuming we limit ourselves to modern times, I’d say least successful losing campaign was Mondale 1984. Worst successful campaign (in terms of stupidity, boorishness and flat out fabrication) is Trump 2016.
Giuliani was once the Republican front runner.
Just off the top of my head
Thomas Dewey, 1948 (the Democrats had split into three warring factions. Dewey was so far ahead that he felt he could coast to certain victory.)
George McGovern, 1972
John Kerry, 2004 (Damn it, John, when someone hits you, hit back!)
John McCain, 2008 (Palin was only part of his problems)
And Hillary. But to be fair, 16 Republicans ran against Trump for the nomination, and he picked them all off one-by-one, like bad ninjas attacking in a cheap martial arts movie.
Hillary Clinton. No one else ever failed so catastrophically.
McGovern and Mondale.
It’s hard to call someone the worst when they get three million more votes than the other guy. Unless you’re defining failure by actual vs. expected performance.
George Bush (sr) his re-election campaign lost to Clinton.
When Edward Kennedy wasn’t able to get democratic nomination.
ETA, I forgot the stolen election of Al Gore.
McCain actually ran a reasonably good campaign. Picking Palin was the only major mistake he made. He was hampered by (A), being of the same party as an unpopular incumbent; and (B), being of the same party that was blamed in certain quarters for the gathering recession. Neither one of those were things that he could do anything about. There are very few politicians who could have done significantly better than he did.
The number of votes doesn’t determine the winner of the contest, any more than the number of baseballs hit by a batter determine the winner of a baseball game. It’s where they go that matters, not how many of them there are total. I can’t believe I’m still having to explain this to so many people.
William Jennings Bryan? Three times, no win.
Someone will still need to explain it to the sore losers for years to come, I suspect.
When we talk justice, they talk law. As if the two were the same, even as they work to make sure it isn’t.
Two major mistakes, I’d say: picking Palin, and suspending his campaign in the face of the burgeoning financial crisis. But overall, I agree, he did about as well as anyone could have hoped, given the state of the electorate at the time.
I’d argue that it takes a special kind of incompetence to be up three million votes at the end of a contest, and still lose.
Given the state of the electorate in 2016, I daresay Hillary Clinton did better in 2016 then McCain in 2008.
i.e, the electorate had been primed to do something reckless.
I’d vote for Nixon’s sweaty performance in the first televised debate and his eventual loss in the 1960 election, though Hillary, McCain 2008, and Dukakis 1988 are up there.
“Other than that, Mrs. Linconln…?”