Failed Candidates

[HappyWarrior]

I personally love Al Smith.  He seems to me like an earlier FDR.

[MasterJedi]

1. Dole
2. Bryan (though his silver stance was horrible)

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Cox. We'd have avoided the FAILURE that is the Wilson administration. Lets see... no US involvement in WWI, no prohibition on a national basis(avoiding certain nasty precedents) and civil rights happening a generation early(No wilson putting Jim Crow in the north).

[HappyWarrior]

I think McGovern would have been a pretty good president.

[PBrunsel]

Judge Alton Bruce Parker, a champion of the law and a good friend of both Progressive reform and business.

[HappyWarrior]

For an interesting article about Parker, look here http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north319.html

[SPC]

I would say Barry Goldwater, because of his commitment to cutting government spending.

[DownWithTheLeft]

I would say Barry Goldwater, because of his commitment to cutting government spending.

[SPC]

Well, after looking at that article on Alton B. Parker, I think I change my vote to him. I would have wanted any Cleveland Democrat in the White House.

[YRABNNRM]

Theodore Roosevelt

[HappyWarrior]

This is meant to be people who NEVER became president, not ones who lost a single election.

[YRABNNRM]

This is meant to be people who NEVER became president, not ones who lost a single election.

That wasn't specified.

Anyway, history would've been quite different either way had TR been elected in 1912.

[Joe Republic]

Not that I'd have selected him, but where's the Mike Dukakis option?

[MasterJedi]

Not that I'd have selected him, but where's the Mike Dukakis option?

Other (specify)

[CPT MikeyMike]

I would say Barry Goldwater, because of his commitment to cutting government spending.

[HappyWarrior]

Sorry, just realized I forgot old Mikey.

[RBH]

Cox. We'd have avoided the FAILURE that is the Wilson administration. Lets see... no US involvement in WWI, no prohibition on a national basis(avoiding certain nasty precedents) and civil rights happening a generation early(No wilson putting Jim Crow in the north).

Did James Cox pioneer time travel or something?

[gorkay]

Quite a few of the men listed probably would have made good Presidents, but IMO the best candidate who never got elected was Adlai Stevenson. He had the bad fortune of coming along when the Democratic Party was on the wane a bit after its New Deal triumphs, and when the Republicans had found one of their most formidable candidates ever.

One of the great unanswered questions of American history is why Stevenson ran in 1956, when he knew (or should have known) that his defeat was a virtual certainty. I wonder sometimes if he was gambling on Ike's health not holding out long enough to get himself re-elected. If he had let someone else be the sacrificial lamb in '56 and waited until '60 for his second run, he may well have gotten the nomination, and if he had, he may well have beaten Nixon. (If you thought JFK blew Nixon away in the debates, imagine how Stevenson, who was a brilliant public speaker and a true intellectual, would have done.) As it was, he didn't jump into the race in '60 until late, and the label of two-time loser ruined whatever chance he might have had.

I'm surprised that McGovern got so many votes. I have a lot of respect for him, but I'm not sure he would have been such a good President. Even with a majority in both houses of Congress, he would have had a tough time getting any of his programs through, because the conservative Democrats would have joined with the Republicans in voting against them. And if he had been able to pull the troops out of Vietnam as quickly as he wanted, I'm sure the Republicans would have blamed him for the loss of the war and the fall of Saigon, a charge that could have hurt future candidates for many years to come.

[DownWithTheLeft]

Thinking about it further, Goldwater is obviously the best option because of how bad Johnson was.  It represents probably the biggest disparity in ideals.

[Sensei]

Al Gore

[Please Delete my account!!]

Bob Dole.   I can not think of a more deserving individual for the office of presidency. 

[HappyWarrior]

I agree that Bob Dole was very deserving of the office.  In no small part because he was very moderate and a man who could have stopped the partisanship we are so plagued with today.

[Michael Z]

Gore or Dewey.

[7,052,770]

Kerry, Gore, Dukakis, Mondale, McGovern, Stevenson, or WJB

voted Kerry.

[© tweed]

kjeety would have ed over the democratic partyy in hindsight we are much better off sicne bich son.