Worst-run presidential campaign

[bobloblaw]

Al Gore 2000.

Lost an election with 3.8% unemployment, a $200b surplus and no wars. No other campaign is close. Bush didnt run a great campaign other. He was a gaffe machine.

Gore should have won by 5-7 points minimum

[bobloblaw]

Romney's campaign is considered pretty terrible.

Romney ran probably the best losing campaign since 1960. The incumbent won fewer absolute votes and a smaller percentage of the vote than the first time. The losing party got one million more votes than in 2008. The incumbent won the third closest re-election in US history.

[bobloblaw]

Who ran the worst winning campaign?

Id say a tie between Carter 76 who went from 30 up in July 1976 to win by less than 2 in Nov and Bush in 1988 who ran on nothing but the flag, the pledge and the ACLU leaving him with no mandate. You might also say Nixon as well but it wasnt the outward campaign that did him in but the behind the scenes tricks.

[bobloblaw]

Al Gore 2000.

Lost an election with 3.8% unemployment, a $200b surplus and no wars. No other campaign is close. Bush didnt run a great campaign other. He was a gaffe machine.

Gore should have won by 5-7 points minimum

The crazy thing is, Gore started almost 20 points behind and ended up winning the popular vote by 500,000.

Gore was never 20 points behind. The polls switched back and forth most of the year. There were points at which both candidates were 10 points up, but never 20.

[bobloblaw]

April 1999, Gallup Poll Bush 54 Gore 41.


But I discount polls like this and tend to focus on the "Fundamentals"

Clinton 60% approval ratings,
GOP lost seats in 1998,
No War,
No Recession,
Economic Fundamentals Strong: Inflation, Unemployment, Fiscal Budget.

Gore should have won by 5-8 points like Daddy Bush in 1988.


One of the worst winning campaigns was also Nixon in 1968. He sat on a 15 point lead for much of the summer and almost blew it.

Id rate the best losing campaigns in no order as:
Romney 2012 (really made no public mistakes, got more votes than the GOP in 2008 and won 2 ore states).
Ford 1976 (his debate gaffe may have cost him, other than that ran a strong campaign considering where the GOP was in the 1974-76 time frame).
Humphrey 1968 (Came from 15 points down in an absolutely awful year for Dems).
Nixon 1960 (He could have called out JFK on the missile gap lie, but would have had to reveal classified info to do so).

[bobloblaw]

To those saying Carter '76 was the worst-run winning campaign, don't you think his going from 20 points ahead to just 2 points had more to do with Ford perhaps running a good losing campaign and other factors beyond his control (improving economy, GOP-friendly electorate)?

James Baker did a good job running Ford's campaign.

I disagree about Romney's campaign being bad, it wasnt at all. He wasnt a gaffe machine like Bush was in 2000. Unemployment had fallen from 10% to around 8%. That is why Obama won.

Carter in 76 sat on a lead and tried to run out the clock.

[bobloblaw]

April 1999, Gallup Poll Bush 54 Gore 41.


But I discount polls like this and tend to focus on the "Fundamentals"

Clinton 60% approval ratings,
GOP lost seats in 1998,
No War,
No Recession,
Economic Fundamentals Strong: Inflation, Unemployment, Fiscal Budget.

Gore should have won by 5-8 points like Daddy Bush in 1988.


One of the worst winning campaigns was also Nixon in 1968. He sat on a 15 point lead for much of the summer and almost blew it.

Id rate the best losing campaigns in no order as:
Romney 2012 (really made no public mistakes, got more votes than the GOP in 2008 and won 2 ore states).
Ford 1976 (his debate gaffe may have cost him, other than that ran a strong campaign considering where the GOP was in the 1974-76 time frame).
Humphrey 1968 (Came from 15 points down in an absolutely awful year for Dems).
Nixon 1960 (He could have called out JFK on the missile gap lie, but would have had to reveal classified info to do so).

Romney made no public mistakes? What about 47%? He was also kind of a gaffe machine with his constant out of touch remarks.

That wasnt a public remark and he wasnt a gaffe machine. The gaffe machine is and was Biden

[bobloblaw]

Perot 1992 was mismanaged. If he hadn't dropped out so abruptly in the summer, and not have picked such a terrible running mate in Stockdale, voters would have taken him far more seriously. He could've finished 2nd place at least.

I agree. And he should have focused on winning EVs. He ran like the US elects its president via the PV