Who are the most forgettable presidential/vice presidential candidates?

[Suburbia]

Paul Ryan will emerge as a forgettable VP candidate.

Dole-Kemp 1996 despite their political acumen, they lost to a charismatic Southerner who fit the 1990s.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Paul Ryan will emerge as a forgettable VP candidate.

Former speaker of the House and face of the Congressional Republican Party under Obama and Trump. Not especially forgettable compared to many others, e.g. random Senators like Kaine.

I think in a few decades Sarah Palin will be a remarkably forgettable character to people still interested in the politics of the time.

[Sir Mohamed]

Theodore Frelinghuysen

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Theodore Frelinghuysen

 The question was most forgettable, not most difficult to spell.

[S019]

John Davis, Al Smith, Alf Landon are quite forgettable, Charles Pinckney is another forgettable one, as for VP's, almost every VP on the losing ticket, though as we get closer and closer to modern times, there are probably less exceptions, but who remembers say Estes Kefauver now, or all of those Republicans running against FDR, whose names I can't even remember

[SenatorCouzens]

Limiting it to 1932 through present, I'd say Wendell Wilkie for president (1940) and William Miller for vice president (1964).

[Crane]

but who remembers say Estes Kefauver now

....

[Bootes Void]

In recent history Id say Tim Kaine is easily a forgettable VP. Sarah Palin will still be well known now but in 15 to 20 years people will easily forget them.

Also btw Paul Ryan is still fairly young I can see him run for some office in Wisconsin like governor or senator

[SingingAnalyst]

As far as actual VP's go, relative to the overall success of the administration, maybe John Nance Garner, FDR's VP from 1933-1941? I have never heard him discussed outside this forum, frankly.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Limiting it to 1932 through present, I'd say Wendell Wilkie for president (1940) and William Miller for vice president (1964).

Here's a riddle, it's a killer/Who the hell is William Miller?

Yeah, these are great answers for post-1932, although Willkie is periodically the subject of renewed attention for providing political cover for FDR's interventionism.

[SenatorCouzens]

Limiting it to 1932 through present, I'd say Wendell Wilkie for president (1940) and William Miller for vice president (1964).

Here's a riddle, it's a killer/Who the hell is William Miller?

Yeah, these are great answers for post-1932, although Willkie is periodically the subject of renewed attention for providing political cover for FDR's interventionism.

Yes, I thought of that regarding Wilkie. He was even prominently mentioned in Zell Miller's famous keynote address at the 2004 Republican Convention. Nevertheless, compared to the rest of the candidates in this era, I think he's probably the most forgettable. 

[StateBoiler]

Limiting it to 1932 through present, I'd say Wendell Wilkie for president (1940) and William Miller for vice president (1964).

Willkie stands out as the most formidable opponent FDR faced for re-election and him being the nominee as a businessman with no political pedigree was a big shift from the Republican orthodoxy (imagine Trump without the assholishness).

Want to argue Alf Landon, sure.

[StateBoiler]

As far as actual VP's go, relative to the overall success of the administration, maybe John Nance Garner, FDR's VP from 1933-1941? I have never heard him discussed outside this forum, frankly.

There's a generation of Democratic politicians from the 1930s that outside of Huey Long, none of them are known beyond detailed historians that FDR played them off all one another or made promises he didn't keep or intentionally sidelined them. Paul McNutt for example.

[SenatorCouzens]

Limiting it to 1932 through present, I'd say Wendell Wilkie for president (1940) and William Miller for vice president (1964).

Willkie stands out as the most formidable opponent FDR faced for re-election and him being the nominee as a businessman with no political pedigree was a big shift from the Republican orthodoxy (imagine Trump without the assholishness).

Want to argue Alf Landon, sure.

Yes, but Alf Landon was a politician (governor) left standing despite disastrous elections for the GOP in 1930, 1932, and 1934. There was also considerable excitement and some confidence from Republicans that he'd take out FDR (Literary Digest poll). And his loss is far more consequential and well remembered because the 1936 election is what sealed the FDR revolution, by the time 1940 and 1944 came around, from a policy change perspective it was much much less important that FDR win.

Landon also lived long enough (to 100) to become something of an elder statesman in Kansas. Ronald Reagan held an event celebrating him in the 1980s. And his daughter went on to become a prominent US Senator.