Year with the worst pool of candidates?

[Lincoln Republican]

Any pool of candidates that includes Jimmy Carter has  to be bad, because Carter alone brings down the average to at best non acceptance at the Presidential level. 

[J. J.]

If 2008 was on the list, I'd vote for it.

[Verily]

1992 was easily the best. The worst was probably 1984, as others have said.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

I've got to go for 2004.  There wasn't a damn person running I could actually get behind.

[12th Doctor]

Toss-up between '76 and '04

[StateBoiler]

1988. The only decent candidate was Gore, but he was too young back then. As for the others, Robertson and Jackson are both nutters, Bush and Dole about as inspirational as a bag of salt, Dukakis one of the most inept candidates in history... oh, if only Bentsen had run!

After hearing that description, I have to agree.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Toss-up between '76 and '04

I think 1976 had a great pool, especially on the Democratic side.  Birch Bayh, Lloyd Bentsen, Frank Church, Scoop Jackson, and Mo Udall would have all been good Presidents.  Ford was not as a poor of a candidate as people make him out to be.

[gorkay]

1984 was a pretty lean year. A lot of prospective Democratic candidates stayed out of the race on the assumption that Mondale would win the nomination easily, and that Reagan would win the election easily.

[DownWithTheLeft]

There were some years way back with much worse candidates (1860, 1864, 1936 to name a few)

[gorkay]

There were some years way back with much worse candidates (1860, 1864, 1936 to name a few)

You're certainly right about that. Look at 1872, for example... probably the worst year of them all. 1908 and 1924 were pretty bad too.

[Sensei]

1984 was a horrible year, because all of the democrats were simply playing to lose, and because of this, the best candidates knew better than to try. So, they nominated Mondale, and the rest is history.