Elections where you're not sure how you would have voted without hindsight

[Lechasseur]

I'll do the post-WWII elections

1952 and 1956: Tbh I like both Eisenhower and Stevenson. I would have been a Democrat at the time but at the same time Eisenhower was a great leader, a WWII hero and overall a good president, although he made some foreign policy mistakes. Lean R, but I would have been more likely to vote for Eisenhower in 1956 than in 1952

1980: ideologically I would have been closer to Jimmy Carter but his presidency did not go well and the country probably needed stronger leadership at that point. Reagan making Bush his running mate would have probably made this race Lean R for my vote (4 years later though, it would have been an obvious vote for Ronald Reagan against Walter Mondale)

1992: I like Bush better as a person and I think he was a good president, a great statesman with great foreign policy accomplishments who deserved reelection,  but I would have still considered myself a Democrat at this point, Bill Clinton would have been closer to my views on the economy and he was moderate enough on everything else that I would have considered voting for him. I'd probably have gone with Bush due to him beating Clinton on a personal level, but this wouldn't be obvious without hindsight (4 years later though, I would have voted for Clinton against Dole)

2004: I actually like both Bush and Kerry (Kerry is the only Democratic nominee in the 21st Century I actually like), and I think Kerry, unlike Gore, had what it took to make a good president (unfortunately for him, 2004 was a poisoned chalice, had he won, he'd be as unpopular as Bush is now due to factors that would have been generally out of his control), I would have agreed with him more on the economy and healthcare and I think he wouldn't have antagonized world leaders the way Bush did. On the other hand, Bush would have been closer to me on social issues, I liked his leadership and reaction to 9/11 and I would have still given him credit for that, and at the time I would have supported the Iraq War (which with hindsight was clearly mismanaged and thus a mistake, but that wasn't obvious in 2004; I would have already considered it mismanaged at the time but I would have thought it was still winnable), so I think I would have leaned towards Bush at the time (but I could have voted for Kerry), but with hindsight I would have definitely voted for Kerry

2008: this is the first election where I was old enough to have an opinion of my own IRL (I barely remember the 2000 election and in 2004 IRL I supported Kerry because my parents did). At the time I really liked both, but I was a huge McCain fan so I was pulling for him, but without hindsight I would have probably supported Obama against almost any other GOP nominee. With hindsight though, this race would be Safe R (Obama ended up not being my type of Democrat at all, but I approved of him until 2011)

All other elections after WWII would have been easy votes for me:
I would have voted Democratic in 1948, 1960, 1964, 1976 (an easy vote without hindsight) and 1996

And I would have voted GOP in 1968, 1972, 1984, 1988, 2000, 2012 and 2016

[YE]

1952 - don’t like the Dem ticket but do I trust Ike and do I trust a Republican President?  With WW2 fresh in my memory, I think I vote for him as Ike wasn’t connected to the dangerous Taft wing and the big oil companies.
1956 - Dem ticket much better but Ike has also been a good president. I see no reason to kick out an incumbent but I definitely do prefer the Dems here on the issue of labor, though by that point Ike had a proven record that was fine on everything else. I think I vote for Ike here.
1960 - I don’t like JFK personally and also find him too hawkish. Watching the debates, I’m not sure how much I trust Nixon either. I also without hindsight would have hated the LBJ VP pick due to his poor record on labor. I guess I vote for JFK here, as he was better on economics and both were fine on civil rights.
1992 - Ross Perot was dead right on NAFTA but otherwise was pretty crappy. Trade is one of my top issues but is it enough to get me to pull the lever? The 92 Clinton was fairly populist so in that he end, I likely would have gone for him.
1996 - Do I stick with Bill Clinton after doing NAFTA, the crime bill, reducing government in the shutdown, and Welfare Reform? Maybe I do since the GOP was much worse but when you consider Clinton’s personal scandals as well, his stupid move to block grant welfare likely does it for me, especially since Ralph Nader was actually decent for a third party candidate. Some chance I go for Perot as well.

2016 - Why vote for Clinton outside a swing state with her history of scandals? I voted for Clinton because NV wasn’t Safe D, but there’s a good chance I write someone in had I not been in a swing state. With hindsight, I’m 50/50 on whether I should have voted for Clinton since NV wasn’t a tipping point state. However, NV doesn’t have write in’s so who do I vote for? I don’t like Johnson or Trump and Stein didn’t make it on the ballot. NV has a none of these option but voting for that is boring. I guess I could have voted for Trump while rooting for Clinton but Trump said, despite saying some populist stuff, too many stuff that doesn’t sit well with me, like saying wages are too high and saying we need to kill the families of ISIS. So yeah, even with hindsight, Clinton I guess.