How did Bob Dole lose so badly in 1996?

[darklordoftech]

Looking at the maps, Dole’s loss doesn’t look any worse than HW Bush’s.

[darklordoftech]

Honestly the better question might be how Bob Dole didn’t lose harder and still kept Clinton under 400 electoral votes. He was DOA in 1996 and clearly overperformed on Election Day.

How did we go from that to the red state/blue state divide in four years?

[darklordoftech]

Another thing: Dole was considered the "my turn" candidate for 1996 (similar to McCain in 2008, Romney in 2012, and Hillary in 2016). Such candidates have had a rather poor track record in modern political history.

[darklordoftech]

In spite of all this, Dole got 12% of the black vote while HW got 11% in 1988 and 10% in 1992 and W got 9% in 2000 and 11% in 2004.

[darklordoftech]

Dole voted to raise Medicare premiums.