Who was the worst running mate in US Presidential election history?

[Perfection]

Who was the worst running mate in US Presidential election history

Edit:

Also WHY!

 

[Azale]

Dan Quayle. Good astronaut though.

 

[Imperialmajesty]

Thomas Eagleton

 

[Perfection]

See edit.

 

[Cutlass]

Dan Quayle. Good astronaut though.

Quayle didn't help Bush lose though. It's not about who was a lousy VP, it's about who was a lousy running mate. And that suggests to me who harmed the election the most. And I just don't know enough about old time VP candidates to remember any that took votes from the main candidate the way that Palin did for McCain.

 

[LightSpectra]

Anybody who doesn't say Eagleton needs to read about the election of 1972.

 

[Azale]

Quayle didn't help Bush lose though. It's not about who was a lousy VP, it's about who was a lousy running mate. And that suggests to me who harmed the election the most. And I just don't know enough about old time VP candidates to remember any that took votes from the main candidate the way that Palin did for McCain.

Quayle was definitely a liability, he lost the debates in '88 and '92 in the eyes of the public. He was almost replaced mid-campaign.

There might be a worse one, but Quayle has the best soundbites

 

[Dachs]

I agree with Spectra and Majesty. Adding a running mate that had mental problems and that called his colleague on the ticket the candidate of "amnesty, abortion, and acid" is hard to beat.

 

[civ_king]

Quayle was definitely a liability, he lost the debates in '88 and '92 in the eyes of the public. He was almost replaced mid-campaign.

There might be a worse one, but Quayle has the best soundbites

POTATOE!!!!!

I think Palin sucked, She rallied the base, but scared the hell out of everyone else

 

[GoodGame]

Quayle didn't help Bush lose though. It's not about who was a lousy VP, it's about who was a lousy running mate. And that suggests to me who harmed the election the most. And I just don't know enough about old time VP candidates to remember any that took votes from the main candidate the way that Palin did for McCain.

I think Quayle did it worse than Palin. Though the estimate would be how popular the presidential candidate was versus their competition, and I have no clue how popular Bush senior was in the wake of Desert Storm/Shield. As lame as I felt Palin to be, I don't feel that she cost McCain the election; I suspect McCain cost himself the election in the debates. So I gotta go with Quayle, for the reasons other posters made.

 

[cardgame]

Palin

do i honestly need to elaborate

edit: Cheezy did it for me, pretty much.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I'd say Sarah Palin. Many people have been picked as running mates because of their ability to potentially rally a new area of voters to the ticket, but I don't know of any who were as utterly clueless, as potentially dangerous, and as outright scary as the soon-to-be former governor of Alaska.

 

[War Bear]

Thomas Eagleton was pretty lousy. He destroyed any remote chance that McGovern could have had, first by calling him the candidate of "Amnesty, Abortion, and Acid" to a reporter, hiding that he had been hospitalized for mental issues, and then threatening to not leave the ticket without a fight.

 

[Cutlass]

I think Quayle did it worse than Palin. Though the estimate would be how popular the presidential candidate was versus their competition, and I have no clue how popular Bush senior was in the wake of Desert Storm/Shield. As lame as I felt Palin to be, I don't feel that she cost McCain the election; I suspect McCain cost himself the election in the debates. So I gotta go with Quayle, for the reasons other posters made.

GHW Bush was very popular in the wake of Desert Storm. However he squandered that popularity over the next couple of years. His "no new taxes" mantra followed by his repeatedly raising taxes discredited him quite a bit. As did his "stay the course" ( repeatedly parodied by comedians) line during the recession. It was felt that he blew the "peace dividend" that we were supposed to gain as he began the military buildown after the end of the Cold War and the Gulf War. Quayle was made fun of quite a bit. He was not much respected. But neither was he feared. So it was Bush himself who squandered his popularity and lost. Though you could also say that 12 years of Reagan-Bush was enough for many people, and it had just run it's course.

As I said, I don't know all that much about many VP candidates. Some were fairly bad, but I don't think that many have really had an impact on the election. They rarely matter that much. Though many are chosen for the votes that they hope will come the presidential candidates way as much as any other reason.

I don't feel that Palin cost McCain the election either. However I do think she cost him some votes among the moderates and moderately conservative. I think it will cost the Republicans in the long run more than it cost McCain, because McCain had nearly no chance to win to begin with. What the choice of Palin did was convince many independents and moderate-conservatives was that the Republican party had finally dropped any and all pretense of being a Big Tent party. And that puts them into permanent minority/regional party status. Or at least long term. Until they fundamentally change to get the moderates and independents back, at any rate. Palin played a part in that, and in that respect she was a truly awful running mate choice.

 

[Imperialmajesty]

I agree with Spectra and Majesty. Adding a running mate that had mental problems and that called his colleague on the ticket the candidate of "amnesty, abortion, and acid" is hard to beat.

Bingo. Eagleton makes Quayle look like LBJ, lol.

 

[sydhe]

I'd say Eagleton, too, but check out Richard Johnson, Martin van Buren's vice president. In 1836, Virginia refused to vote for him, throwing the Vice-Presidency into the Senate. In 1840, the Democrats refused to renominate him although he apparently did appear on the ballot in many states with van Buren. It was more a refusal to endorse him. One interesting tidbit, from his Wikipedia article:

"Another pet project Johnson supported was prompted by his friendship with John Cleves Symmes, Jr., who proposed that the Earth was hollow. In 1823, Johnson proposed in the Senate that the government fund an expedition to the center of the Earth. The proposal was soundly defeated, receiving only twenty-five votes in the House and Senate combined.[13]"

Although Johnson also did admirable stuff while he was a Senator, such as leading the fight to end debtors prisons. The reason he was nominated for VP in the first place was because he claimed to be the person who shot Tecumseh during the Battle of the Thames, and one of the Whig candidates in 1836 was William Henry Harrison, who was the American commander in that battle.

One of the reasons Johnson was controversial was because he lived with a mulatto woman who he was not officially married to (she was probably his common-law wife), then later took a couple of slaves as his mistresses. He also fell into debt during the Panic of 1837 and returned home to run a tavern, even though he was still Vice-President at the time.

 

[sydhe]

James Sherman was an ineffective VP nominee for William Howard Taft in 1912. Sherman was ill during the campaign and died a week prior to the election. Taft was headed for a landslide loss anyway, and it's hard to say if Sherman's illness hurt Taft much.

 

[generalstaff]

Palin: Rove's plan to use her to try to close up the voting gap through a greater turnout of right-wing evangelicals failed. If McCain did not take Rove's advice and not have a moderate platform ultimately cost him the presidency, however, it likely earned him the nomination though.

The only other worse running mates I can think of fall into the category of "VPs who should not have become president."

 

[Imperialmajesty]

I'd say Eagleton, too, but check out Richard Johnson, Martin van Buren's vice president. In 1836, Virginia refused to vote for him, throwing the Vice-Presidency into the Senate. In 1840, the Democrats refused to renominate him although he apparently did appear on the ballot in many states with van Buren. It was more a refusal to endorse him. One interesting tidbit, from his Wikipedia article:

"Another pet project Johnson supported was prompted by his friendship with John Cleves Symmes, Jr., who proposed that the Earth was hollow. In 1823, Johnson proposed in the Senate that the government fund an expedition to the center of the Earth. The proposal was soundly defeated, receiving only twenty-five votes in the House and Senate combined.[13]"

Although Johnson also did admirable stuff while he was a Senator, such as leading the fight to end debtors prisons. The reason he was nominated for VP in the first place was because he claimed to be the person who shot Tecumseh during the Battle of the Thames, and one of the Whig candidates in 1836 was William Henry Harrison, who was the American commander in that battle.

One of the reasons Johnson was controversial was because he lived with a mulatto woman who he was not officially married to (she was probably his common-law wife), then later took a couple of slaves as his mistresses. He also fell into debt during the Panic of 1837 and returned home to run a tavern, even though he was still Vice-President at the time.

One of the main differences though, is that at least Martin Van Buren got to serve a term in office with him, while Eagleton didn't even last a month as a Vice Presidential candidate,

 

[citedon]

Choosing between Eagleton and Palin is tough. Eagleton looked like an acceptable, possibly a good choice to help win some votes. At the time he was selected nobody knew about his ridiculous comments which would have made him totally unacceptable and ultimately helped ruin the Democrats' chances to win the presidency. Palin was a downright weird choice. How could a VP candidate from Alaska with its low population and who was such a lightweight help win you any votes? But I think Eagleton takes the cake as the worst VP candidate. He only lasted about a month whereas Palin finished the race and was actually more popular when it was over than at the beginning (still kind of weird though).