Why the losers lost the POTUS elections. [View All]

[Silverhair]

I am going to start with 1972 POTUS election.

Mcgovern - Promised a $1,000.00 a year to everybody. That branded him as a nutcase. He wanted to reduce the military by 1/3 during the cold war while we were fighting a war. The other stuff hurt him, and Nixon certainly did some dirty tricks, but those two issues were soundly rejected by the public.

Ford - Tainted by Watergate, poor economy, inflation a problem. Carter was running as an outsider, promised to reorganize the gov't as he had done in Georgia.

Carter - HORRIBLE ECONOMY. The Iranian thing, and the large number of countries that had become part of the Soviet Empire hurt him too, but the bad economy was enough by itself to do him in. All Reagan had to do was reassure the voters that he would not blow up the world and they would vote against Carter. Carter had 17% inflation and 9% unemployment.

Mondale - Promised a general tax increase. He said that more than once as one poster said. He said it again in the debates. Also I think the VP selection hurt him. He didn't choose Ferraro because she was the best qualified but because she was a woman. It was seen as a political stunt and backfired badly.

Dukikas - Pledge of Alliagence problems hurt him. Fumbled the rape question in the debate. Photo op on the tank was stupid. Convict screw up came back to haunt him as "soft on crime." (Why did his furlough program grant furloughs to lifers anyway?) Bush promised not to raise taxes and Duke wouldn't make the same promise.

Bush v.1 - Broke promise on taxes. Fought war but didn't solve the problem. Weak economy. Perot didn't help him any but didn't cost him the election either. Clinton ran a great campaign. Hillary made some gaffes, but they weren't critical.

Dole - Sacrificial lamb. Reps figured no one could beat Clinton, so Dole took the bullet. He was retiring anyway. He probably already had the Viagra spot lined up before the election. (Last sentence not to be taken seriously.)

Gore - Damn!!! Gore really did win, but by a squeaker of squeakers. We lost a critical number of votes in Florida to that screwed up ballot. That would have been enough to make the difference. However - GORE SHOULD HAVE WON IN A LANDSLIDE!!!!! He blew what should have been a cakewalk. Good economy, country at peace, and he represented the Party that was in power for that. In the debates he acted like a child when he needed to be presidental. He didn't articulate a vision. He was always reinventing himself. Gore blew it because he was Gore.

What's my point? No need for any conspiracy theories on any of this. As long as we whine, blame our loses on being cheated or on dirty tricks, or on negative ads by the Reps, we will keep on losing. We have the issues to win with. But we have to realize that a POTUS election is the most hardball of hardball contests, nor would I change that. If our candidate can't win in that kind of hardball, what will happen in global hardballs where he represents the country?

Stop blaming the opposition for our loses. If we lost, then we need to get smarter and tougher and WIN the next one, instead of crying about the past ones.