Who was the best of recent failed Democratic presidential nominees?

[politicallefty]

Humphrey. I think him winning in 1968 would have been the most consequential as far as promoting Democratic ideals. That term would have been a huge opportunity to pass a universal healthcare plan. As LBJ's successor, I think it'd hardly be a stretch to see a universal healthcare plan based off of Medicare. (As for SCOTUS, Nixon ended up with four appointments in his first term. Blackmun wasn't that bad, but we could've done much better than Burger, Powell, and Rehnquist. And, in that case, the death penalty almost certainly would not have been reinstated in 1976, if at all. It's very possible that the death penalty would have been ruled categorically unconstitutional.)