Is Trump in the strongest position for a prsidential comeback since Cleveland?

[DaleCooper]

Roosevelt was pretty strong as well, so it’s a question of if he ousts him.

But Roosevelt stepped down, he didn't lose re-election like Cleveland and Trump. TR would have won in 1912 and even 1916 if he wanted.

What? He literally ran and lost in 1912. You mean if he had ran again in 1908 and then kept running?

If he had been given the Republican nomination, presumably.

[Motorcity]

Roosevelt was pretty strong as well, so it’s a question of if he ousts him.

But Roosevelt stepped down, he didn't lose re-election like Cleveland and Trump. TR would have won in 1912 and even 1916 if he wanted.

What? He literally ran and lost in 1912. You mean if he had ran again in 1908 and then kept running?

Yeah thats what I meant

[SN2903]

Now that I think about it, Theodore Roosevelt was in a better shape for a political comeback than was Cleveland. Taft chose not to run in 1916. Wilson was dying and knew it in 1924, as was Coolidge in 1932. Hoover had made a great mess of things and wasn't going to run again (see also Carter) even if he was in good intellectual and physical shape for a long time. Truman  had a huge roller-coaster of a Presidency. Beyond that -- the Presidency had taken much out of LBJ. Ford was in reasonably-good condition for 1980 but chose not to run. George H W Bush might have gotten the GOP nomination in 1996 had he run... but didn't. 

Trump is in very bad shape, and he is going out of style fast.

85% of the party supports him still. Going out of style. How? He almost won with almost everything going wrong in 2020. Democrats should have won in a landslide if they were actually popular.

[pbrower2a]

Now that I think about it, Theodore Roosevelt was in a better shape for a political comeback than was Cleveland. Taft chose not to run in 1916. Wilson was dying and knew it in 1924, as was Coolidge in 1932. Hoover had made a great mess of things and wasn't going to run again (see also Carter) even if he was in good intellectual and physical shape for a long time. Truman  had a huge roller-coaster of a Presidency. Beyond that -- the Presidency had taken much out of LBJ. Ford was in reasonably-good condition for 1980 but chose not to run. George H W Bush might have gotten the GOP nomination in 1996 had he run... but didn't. 

Trump is in very bad shape, and he is going out of style fast.

85% of the party supports him still. Going out of style. How? He almost won with almost everything going wrong in 2020. Democrats should have won in a landslide if they were actually popular.

Trump demonstrates, as did Dubya in 2004, the power of incumbency to shape the political agenda. Even if he were a below-average President he had plenty of incumbent pols in his Party aiding him in his re-election bid. He hogged the media. He was able to shape the language of the election. Had he been a mediocre President he would have won re-election.

Unlike a challenger, he had the Party behind him throughout the preceding four years, and sympathetic media as an echo chamber lauding him even if he simply sneezed. Trump has a personality cult and it is still intact.

The incumbent President shapes the election if he seeks election unless a poor campaigner (Ford).  Even the elder Bush shaped the 1992 election in ensuring that his challenger had to accept his foreign policy, the one thing that "41" undeniably did well.   

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Another day another Trump and DeSantis thread how they are gonna win, no Trump won't win, ever again

[Oregon Eagle Politics]

Yes, he has a slightly higher chance than Ford

[The Mikado]

The only ex-President since TR who seriously considered a comeback was Herbert Hoover, and no one else in the GOP was dumb enough to entertain his comeback fantasies.

(Hoover did actually make a bid for nomination in 1940! It got zero traction)

Since then? No one's seriously even considered it, and as people have pointed out, Gerald Ford was the only one who could even conceivably have tried.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Given his unpopularity with the general public and how much he would activate an otherwise rather disparate anti-Trump vote behind Biden/Harris, I highly doubt Trump would have a good shot at winning a second time. But I suppose it's possible if the Biden administration messes up majorly (unpopular war, economic recession, legislative overreach, corruption scandal, big culture war gaffe). Certainly more likely than Ford or Teddy Roosevelt winning the nomination of their respective parties in the teeth of conservative opposition, given that appears to be locked up for him.

[brucejoel99]

The only ex-President since TR who seriously considered a comeback was Herbert Hoover, and no one else in the GOP was dumb enough to entertain his comeback fantasies.

(Hoover did actually make a bid for nomination in 1940! It got zero traction)

Since then? No one's seriously even considered it, and as people have pointed out, Gerald Ford was the only one who could even conceivably have tried.

Not entirely true, given that Ford fully considered it (he just ended up choosing not to run after having considered it).