2016 Postmortem

geek tragedy

(68,868 posts) Tue Dec 20, 2016, 12:08 PM Dec 2016

Presidents since WWII who won first election because they were more qualified than their opponent:

Presidents since WWII who won first election because of any other reason:

All of them.

6 replies

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Presidents since WWII who won first election because they were more qualified than their opponent: (Original Post) geek tragedy Dec 2016 OP

George Senior zipplewrath Dec 2016 #1

Poppy Bush won because of structural reasons and because he had a weak opponent. geek tragedy Dec 2016 #4

Truman dsc Dec 2016 #2

they inherited the role of president, they weren't elected as President. geek tragedy Dec 2016 #5

Nixon was more qualified than McGovern? Reagan more than Carter? baldguy Dec 2016 #3

No, point is experience wasn't why they won. geek tragedy Dec 2016 #6

zipplewrath

(16,692 posts)

1. George Senior

Reply to geek tragedy (Original post)

Tue Dec 20, 2016, 12:25 PM

Dec 2016

He's probably the lone exception. Not many can claim his executive branch resume, much less his total political background.

Eisenhower is a tough one because he had a lot of applicable experience, but all of it was the "non-elected" type.

LBJ is another one, not many people get elected to the presidency for the first time, WHILE they are president.

geek tragedy

(68,868 posts)

4. Poppy Bush won because of structural reasons and because he had a weak opponent.

Reply to zipplewrath (Reply #1)

Tue Dec 20, 2016, 12:28 PM

Dec 2016

His election remains an outlier for a number of reasons, the rare third term for the party in power.

LBJ, see your point, but he was already President, like Truman, as you noted.

Ike had zero electoral experience--he was a general, so obviously he was a politician. On paper Adlai Stevenson had more conventional experience.

But in general, experience, qualifications and competence are not winning arguments.