1988: Michael Dukakis (D) v. Pat Robertson (R)

[© tweed]

Robertson formed a renegade campaign in 1988 that energized evangelicals and he stunned the world when he finished a strong second in Iowa and some other primaries, but a third place finish in South Carolina ended his hopes for the nomination.

[Keystone Phil]

Write in/Dukakis

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

Write in/Dukakis

^^^^^^^

[jokerman]

Dukakis/Robertson

[Dr. Cynic]

No way Pat Robertson could win this... The man is a straight up lunatic.

Dukakis/Dukakis.

[DownWithTheLeft]

Robertson's campaign upstarts Evangelicals and he runs up ridiculous margins in the South pushing 90 in South Carolina.  He wins 288-250

[Gabu]

Robertson's campaign upstarts Evangelicals and he runs up ridiculous margins in the South pushing 90 in South Carolina.  He wins 288-250

Er... you do know that white evangelicals only make up around a quarter of the population and that most of them already vote Republican, yes?

[Reignman]

Probably something more like this:

Image Link

[WalterMitty]

Robertson's campaign upstarts Evangelicals and he runs up ridiculous margins in the South pushing 90 in South Carolina.  He wins 288-250

robertson finished 3rd in the south carolina gop primary, yet you think he would have won 90% in the general election?

[adam]

Dukakis/Dukakis

I think my map is being rather generous to Robertson.

[jokerman]

No way Pat Robertson could win this... The man is a straight up lunatic.

Dukakis/Dukakis.

Is, maybe, but was he perceived as a lunatic in 1988?  Maybe not enough of one to lose to Dukakis.  The same smear campaign would have likely been lodged at Dukakis as in real life, and I think Robertson would have still pulled out a victory.

[pragmatic liberal]

Robertson was seen as nutty even then. Americans were more conservative on social issues than they are today, but not radically so.

All this is kind of moot because Robertson never came within an inch of winning the nomination. But had he somehow done so, he would have lost in a 48 or 49 state landslide, even to Dukakis, who wasn't an inherently horrible candidate. He wasn't very inspiring but he was winning the race for a large portion of it; his campaign was what was truly botched and had it been better-run it would probably have been a close race with Bush.

But against Robertson? I imagine Dukakis would have pulled out narrow wins even in much of the South.

[Colin]

Robertson's campaign upstarts Evangelicals and he runs up ridiculous margins in the South pushing 90 in South Carolina.  He wins 288-250

robertson finished 3rd in the south carolina gop primary, yet you think he would have won 90% in the general election?

Maybe if they didn't allow blacks to vote again would South Carolina go over 90% Republican as for in the real world that would never happen especially with a candidate like Patty boy running.

[Ferdinand]

Eugene McCarthy/Dukakis, in the largest landslide in American history.

[True Democrat]

Some of the percentages I'm not really too sure about, but:



411-127

[Sensei]

I say flip AZ, FL, LA, and VA and its good for me.

[True Democrat]

I say flip AZ, FL, LA, and VA and its good for me.

Florida was one of Bush's best states in 1988.

[Sensei]

I know, but I don't think the voters of the state would have gone for Robertson, since there are not as many evangelicals as compared to the rest of the south.