rating the campaigns

[alcaeus]

   What were the best Presidential campaigns for competitiveness, excitement, and quality of the candidates?  This includes conventions and primaries

    My votes are for:

   
     1.)  1912   Wilson, Roosevelt, and Taft
     2.)  1800   Jefferson, Adams, Burr, and Jay           
     3.)  1844   Polk and Clay
     4.)  1948   Truman and Dewey
     5.)  1884   Cleveland and Blaine

     I'd like to include 1976 for its competitiveness, and the role of Reagan in the Republican platform, but the quality of candidates Ford and Carter just doesn't match up with the best campaigns.   Several campaigns with great candidates were not competitive.
   
   

[Kodratos]

1948, 1960, 1968, 1976, 1992

Winner has got to be 1968.

[J. J.]

2000 hass to be in there.

[Kodratos]

2000 hass to be in there.

2000 is interesting in retrospect, but it wasn't that tight or interesting at the time. Bush was ahead by about four points going in. It looked like he was going to win a close election. Then exit polling came out and showed he was in trouble. So the race only got tight on election night.

I would say that election is most useful as a marker for where the nation was at in that important period in history.

[Brutus]

1992 was pretty fun to watch.  Gotta love the Perot factor.

1988 was probably the worst in modern times... a campaign about nothing.

[Bugs]

1876.  The election was decided by criminal making deals back and forth, but Hayes and Tilded stayed out of it.  Both were decent candidates.  Tilden could have made trouble when the decision was made, but he didn't.

Also 1912, 1948, 1960.

[gorkay]

1912 has to be the most interesting because there were three former or future Presidents running (and Eugene Debs thrown into the mix). 1884 would be a close second, because it was so close and there was so much dirty dealing on both sides.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

2000 showed how the GOP will violate the letter AND spirit of the constitution in an extreme manner to get into power.

[gorkay]

2000 showed how the GOP will violate the letter AND spirit of the constitution in an extreme manner to get into power.

Thereby proving that, from 1876 to 2000, some things hadn't changed.