Who was the more Libertarian candidate in past presdiential elections?

[A cowboy always follows his beard]

Excluding the actual Libertarian Party, of course.

Pure Guesses:

2008: John McCain
2004/2000: George W. Bush
1996: Bob Dole
1992/1988: George Bush
1984: Ronald Reagan
1980/1976: Jimmy Carter
1972: George McGovern
1968: Equally un-libertarian. If forced to choose, Richard Nixon, if only in image.
1964: AUH20
1960: See 1968
1956/1952: Eisenhower, probably
1948/1944: Dewey
1940: Wendal Wilkie
1936: Equally un-libertarian, if forced to choose, Alfred Landon
1932/1928: Herbert Hoover
1924: Calvin Coolidge
1920: Warren Harding
1916: Charles Hughes
1912/1908: Willaim Howard Taft
1904: Don't know enough about Alton Parker to form an opinion.
1900/1896: Equally un-libertarian. If Forced to choose, William McKinley
1892/1888/1884: Grover Cleveland

This is as far as I can go, but what do you all think?

[Liberté]

All this is relative. In truth, very few of these men were 'libertarian' in any sense, and fewer still actively campaigned as one.

1896/1900: Both unlibertarian
1904: Alton Parker
1908/12: William Howard Taft
1916: Charles Evans Hughes
1920: Warren Harding
1924: Calvin Coolidge
1928: Al Smith
1932: Franklin Roosevelt (bear in mind he campaigned on a pledge to balance the budget)
1936: Both unlibertarian
1940: Wendell Wilkie, barely
1944: Both unlibertarian
1948: Thomas Dewey
1952: Adlai Stevenson
1956: Adlai Stevenson
1960: John F. Kennedy, barely
1964: Barry Goldwater
1968: All unlibertarian
1972: George McGovern
1976: Jimmy Carter
1980: Jimmy Carter
1984: Ronald Reagan
1988: Michael Dukakis, barely
1992: Bill Clinton, barely
1996: Bob Dole
2000: Both unlibertarian
2004: Both unlibertarian
2008: Both unlibertarian

[InsaneTrollLogic]

The Republican isn't automatically more libetarian. Is a trillion dollars corporate welfare that has created 10 million-strong  millionaire welfare recipient  libertarian? Is the fact that since 2001, out of all the federal debt since then that Obama has been president for 20% of that time and is responsible for only 6% of that debt and that McCain supported continuing Bush's programs that caused 94% of that debt make McCain or Bush or libertarian than Obama or Kerry? Grammar's very akward, but you get the picutre. Are abortion bans and constitutional amendments regulating the nature and position of homosexuality in American jurisprudence and culture libertarain? Are medical research funding regulations that specifically fund some research and not others based on reasons that have nothing to do with saving the taxpayer's money, scientific economy or the future of healthcare delivery libertarian? Are medicare perscription purchasing plans that cost more than Obama's universal mandate and public exchange program libertarian? Jesus H. Christ. Now, Obama definitely is all about the Goverment being involved in the making of the American existence but when McCain or Bush or Palin or Romney say any different, you know that they are lying.

All this is relative. In truth, very few of these men were 'libertarian' in any sense, and fewer still actively campaigned as one.

1896/1900: Both unlibertarian
1904: Alton Parker
1908/12: William Howard Taft
1916: Charles Evans Hughes
1920: Warren Harding
1924: Calvin Coolidge
1928: Al Smith
1932: Franklin Roosevelt (bear in mind he campaigned on a pledge to balance the budget)
1936: Both unlibertarian
1940: Wendell Wilkie, barely
1944: Both unlibertarian
1948: Thomas Dewey
1952: Adlai Stevenson
1956: Adlai Stevenson
1960: John F. Kennedy, barely
1964: Barry Goldwater
1968: All unlibertarian
1972: George McGovern
1976: Jimmy Carter
1980: Jimmy Carter
1984: Ronald Reagan
1988: Michael Dukakis, barely
1992: Bill Clinton, barely
1996: Bob Dole
2000: Both unlibertarian
2004: Both unlibertarian
2008: Both unlibertarian

I'll go with that...

[Liberté]

All this is relative. In truth, very few of these men were 'libertarian' in any sense, and fewer still actively campaigned as one.

1896/1900: Both unlibertarian
1904: Alton Parker
1908/12: William Howard Taft
1916: Charles Evans Hughes
1920: Warren Harding
1924: Calvin Coolidge
1928: Al Smith
1932: Franklin Roosevelt (bear in mind he campaigned on a pledge to balance the budget)
1936: Both unlibertarian
1940: Wendell Wilkie, barely
1944: Both unlibertarian
1948: Thomas Dewey
1952: Adlai Stevenson
1956: Adlai Stevenson
1960: John F. Kennedy, barely
1964: Barry Goldwater
1968: All unlibertarian
1972: George McGovern
1976: Jimmy Carter
1980: Jimmy Carter
1984: Ronald Reagan
1988: Michael Dukakis, barely
1992: Bill Clinton, barely
1996: Bob Dole
2000: Both unlibertarian
2004: Both unlibertarian
2008: Both unlibertarian

Also, of these, I'd only be comfortable in calling Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Al Smith, Barry Goldwater, George McGovern, and Jimmy Carter 'libertarian' in any sense of the word, though obviously not one of them were doctrinaire American-style libertarians.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Well, I guess by "libertarian" you mean governed with more non-violence than violence.

[Liberté]

Well, I guess by "libertarian" you mean governed with more non-violence than violence.

Well, as I said, it's relative. George McGovern, my favorite off that list, proposed a guaranteed minimum income during his campaign - but so did Richard Nixon, though he obviously never fulfilled that pledge. Nixon's health-care plans were far to the left of McGovern's, and Nixon's military interventionism and stance on social issues (busing, Affirmative Action, etc.) were obviously unlibertarian. McGovern, on the hand, favored limited drug legalization, amnesty for draft dodgers, and took a state's-rights stance on the abortion issue. McGovern was clearly and obviously the more libertarian of the candidates, even if he wasn't a dogmatic Lew Rockwell-style 'paleolibertarian'.

[State Comptroller Atkins]

1896/1900: William McKinley
1904: Alton Parker
1908/12: William Howard Taft
1916: Charles Evans Hughes
1920: Warren Harding
1924: Calvin Coolidge
1928: Al Smith
1932: Franklin Roosevelt
1936: Alf Landon
1940: Wendell Wilkie
1944: Thomas Dewey
1948: Thomas Dewey
1952: Adlai Stevenson
1956: Adlai Stevenson
1960: John F. Kennedy
1964: Barry Goldwater
1968: Hubert Humphrey
1972: George McGovern
1976: Jimmy Carter
1980: Jimmy Carter
1984: Walter Mondale
1988: Michael Dukakis
1992: Bill Clinton
1996: Bill Clinton
2000: Al Gore
2004: John Kerry
2008: Barack Obama

[crypto-fascist superhero]

A lot of these are difficult since both the candidates were very authoritarian.  I'm going to include independents with >5%.

As they governed/(I'm guessing) would govern, followed by as they campaigned:

2008: lean John McCain (R), lean Barack Obama (D)
2004: lean John Kerry (D) for both
2000: lean George W. Bush (R), George W. Bush (R)
1992/1996: Ross Perot (I, Ref) for both
1988: George H.W. Bush (R) for both
1980/1984: Ronald Reagan (R) for both.  1980 is a toughie.
1976: lean Gerald Ford (R) for both (a toughie)
1972: George McGovern (D) for both
1968: toughie, probably still Richard Nixon (R) for governing though an argument could actually be made for George Wallace (AIP), Richard Nixon (R) for campaigning (this is one of the most unlibertarian elections along with 88/00/04/08)
1964: Barry Goldwater (R) for both
1960: lean John F. Kennedy (D) for both
1952/1956: lean Dwight Eisenhower (R) for both
1944/1948: Thomas Dewey (R) for both
1940: Wendell Willkie (R) for both
1936: Alf Landon (R) for both
1932: Herbert Hoover (R), lean Franklin Roosevelt (D)
1928: Al Smith (D) for both
1924: Calvin Coolidge (R) for both
1920: Warren Harding (R) for both
1916: Charles Hughes (R) for both
1912: William Howard Taft (R), lean Woodrow Wilson (D)
1908: William Howard Taft (R) for both
1904: Alton Parker (D) for both
1896/1900: lean William McKinley (R) for both (though certainly WJB is the more libertarian option for Filipinos...)
1884/1888/1892: Grover Cleveland (D) for both
1880: Winfield Hancock (D) for both
1876: Samuel Tilden (D) for both
1872: Horace Greeley (D/LR) for both
1868: Horatio Seymour (D) for both
1864: George McClellan (D) for both
1860: John Bell (CU), lean Abraham Lincoln (R)
1856: lean John C. Frémont for both
1852: lean Franklin Pierce for both
1848: Martin Van Buren (FS) for both
1844: lean James Polk for both
1836/1840: Martin Van Buren for both
1832: lean William Wirt (AM) for both
1828: lean Andrew Jackson (D) for both
1824: lean William Crawford (DR) for both
1816: James Monroe (DR) for both
1812: DeWitt Clinton (F), James Madison (DR)
1808: James Madison (DR) for both
1796/1800/1804: Thomas Jefferson (DR) for both

[Liberté]

I agree with a lot of your reasoning, but what makes you think Eisenhower was more libertarian than Stevenson? I'm genuinely curious. Stevenson, after all, was the once calling for a nuclear freeze and a more diplomatic approach to the Soviet question. Ike also initiated the largest public works programme in human history.

[crypto-fascist superhero]

I agree with a lot of your reasoning, but what makes you think Eisenhower was more libertarian than Stevenson? I'm genuinely curious. Stevenson, after all, was the once calling for a nuclear freeze and a more diplomatic approach to the Soviet question. Ike also initiated the largest public works programme in human history.

Well Adlai was the candidate who wanted to continue the Korean War in 1952, and that colors my conception of him quite a bit.  This is also asking who was the more personally libertarian candidate, not who would govern more libertarian.  I suspect that if both of them had their druthers and could remake the US government from the ground up, then Ike's would be considerably more libertarian.

[Senator Snowstalker]

Since 1900:

1900: McKinley
1904: Parker
1908: Taft
1912: Taft
1916: Hughes
1920: Harding
1924: Coolidge
1928: Smith
1932: Hoover
1936: Landon
1940: Wilkie
1944: Dewey
1948: Dewey
1952: Stevenson
1956: Stevenson
1960: Kennedy
1964: Goldwater
1968: Humphrey
1972: McGovern
1976: Ford
1980: Carter
1984: Reagan
1988: Dukakis
1992: Clinton
1996: Dole
2000: Gore
2004: Kerry
2008: Obama

[shua]

I think a case can be made for Davis as even more libertarian than Coolidge considering Prohibition and trade.

[crypto-fascist superhero]

I think a case can be made for Davis as even more libertarian than Coolidge considering Prohibition and trade.

Except that Coolidge was a wet and Davis was a dry...

Davis was the same or worse (from a libertarian perspective) as Coolidge on every issue except trade.

[A cowboy always follows his beard]

This subject has been on my mind again, so bumping. Also, how about 2012? Who's the more libertarian one between Obama and Romney?