Most electable 1988 Democratic primary candidate

[darklordoftech]

?

[President Johnson]

Write in: Sam Nunn, Lloyd Bentsen, Lawton Chiles

[VPH]

Gephardt could've brought Reagan Democrats back into the fold, taken advantage of farm-state discontent even better than Dukakis, and reached out to the Atari Dems with the right VP choice.

[dw93]

Gephardt or Biden, can't decide which. Hart's "New Ideas" were way too vague and thus very easy to attack, but I don't think he'd be dead in the water. Hart and Gore were equally electable (or unelectable, depending on your take), and they were more so than Dukakis. Simon and Jackson were the least electable IMHO.

[Alben Barkley]

Gephardt or Biden, can't decide which. Hart's "New Ideas" were way too vague and thus very easy to attack, but I don't think he'd be dead in the water. Hart and Gore were equally electable (or unelectable, depending on your take), and they were more so than Dukakis. Simon and Jackson were the least electable IMHO.

I'd actually say vague ideas are the hardest to attack.

[dw93]

Gephardt or Biden, can't decide which. Hart's "New Ideas" were way too vague and thus very easy to attack, but I don't think he'd be dead in the water. Hart and Gore were equally electable (or unelectable, depending on your take), and they were more so than Dukakis. Simon and Jackson were the least electable IMHO.

I'd actually say vague ideas are the hardest to attack.

"Where's the Beef" was a pretty effective attack against those ideas, and that came from Walter Mondale, I can't imagine what Atwater would've done with them.

[Alben Barkley]

Gephardt or Biden, can't decide which. Hart's "New Ideas" were way too vague and thus very easy to attack, but I don't think he'd be dead in the water. Hart and Gore were equally electable (or unelectable, depending on your take), and they were more so than Dukakis. Simon and Jackson were the least electable IMHO.

I'd actually say vague ideas are the hardest to attack.

"Where's the Beef" was a pretty effective attack against those ideas, and that came from Walter Mondale, I can't imagine what Atwater would've done with them.

But then the tables could be easily turned and Bush would be forced to explain and defend his own specific policies and Reagan's, not all of which were popular despite Reagan's personal popularity. Pretty sure Atwater wanted to avoid that and thought Hart was a much bigger threat than Dukakis, who was just too meek to handle the relentless attacks; not sure the same would be true for Hart. That may be why Atwater played a role in digging up the affair and leaking it to the press, as he supposedly did.

Hart also had a much flashier, more charismatic personality than either Dukakis or Bush. The reality is Reagan was also pretty vague and light on policy details in his own campaigns; voters just didn't care because they liked him a lot. A Democratic primary in a year like 1984 when you're nominating a sacrificial lamb anyway is one thing, but 1988 was a totally different situation.

I'm not saying Hart necessarily was the most electable candidate possible that year, by the way. Biden or Gore or maybe Gephardt could well have been as good or better, all for different reasons. I'm just saying I don't think the "Where's the beef?" attack coming from Bush in a 1988 general election would work the same as it did coming from Mondale in a 1984 Democratic primary.