this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2024
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In other words, which POTUS elections did the (a) general American public at the time see as all candidates being poor options, and (b) do current historians and political scientists generally agree as them having poor candidates?

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[–] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 37 points 4 months ago

Hayes vs Tilden had neither candidate winning a majority of electoral votes and the election was basically decided by backroom deals.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1876_United_States_presidential_election

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 23 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Progressives in 1968 thought that massive protests in the streets would push the Democrats to the Left.

It didn't work.

[–] BackOnMyBS@lemmy.autism.place 3 points 4 months ago

For those wondering

[–] son_named_bort@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago

A case could be made for 1976. The incumbent Gerald Ford was neither elected president nor vice president, and became VP after Agnew resigned before becoming president after Nixon's resignation. He pardoned Nixon after the Watergate scandal, which was really unpopular with the American people. The challenger Jimmy Carter was an unknown before the Democratic primary, being the Governor of Georgia but was not seen as someone who would be more than that. It was a tight election with Carter barely beating Ford. It's possible a stronger Democratic candidate would've won in a landslide, likewise a stronger Republican incumbent would've probably won easily.

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

I understand 1860 was pretty contentious.