Talk Elections

Well, George W. Bush now enters an elite club.  This being the club of presidents who have been elected to two terms.  Now getting elected once is hard enough, but getting elected twice is very difficult as Jimmy Carter and President Bush's father can tell you.  After being watched by the nation for 4 years, your political opponet has had plenty of time to observe you and all your faults and weaknesses.  Also the opposing party is often quite anxious to defeat a sitting president.  So in order to become a 2 termer, you obviously either have to be a good campaigner or have a great staff around you.  So just going on campaigning alone, which 2 term president of the last 70 years has been the best campaigner?

Note:  I am not including Harry Truman in this poll.  Cause he was actually only elected once himself in 1948, even though he did serve the majority of FDRs fourth elected term.

Update:  That should say post WWII in the poll question.   

bttt

Bush should not have won 3 out of his 4 winning races-- 1994, 2000, and 2004. You have to give him the trophy for best campaigner. No one overachieved like he did.

Reagan.

Clinton, hands down.

I'm surprised that nobody has voted Nixon yet.  I didn't expect Eisenhower to get that much as he ran during the peaceful and prosperous era of the 1950s. .   Nixon did come back and win the Presidency in 1968 after he lost in 1960.  Then went on to a landslide in 1972 and earned the nickname "Tricky Dick" along the wall.  Reagan was known as a great communicator and went on to two of the biggest walk a way victories in history.   Clinton was definently slick Willy and knew how to communicate.  George W. Bush overcame very difficult odds in all of his wins. 

I voted for Clinton.  Bush has learned the the lessons that Clinton taught.

I just like that line.

I've never said that Clinton wasn't a brilliant campaigner.  And I will note that there are a few offices where I have never voted Republican.

Bubba.  no contest!

It is Bush hands down.  "W" is not very articulate and blew the debates.  He was running during a period of an unpopular war, marginal economy, a divided country, and a generally hostile news media.

He won the Popular vote, electoral college and motivated a record turnout for his supporters.  The mark of a great campaigner is overcoming obstacles and turning out your vote.  "W" hands down.

I agree.  I had a hard time picking between Reagan and Bush.  Reagan was the great communicator.  He battled the press too and his 1984 49 state landslide shows how great he is.  However, even Reagan didn't face the kind of onsluaught Bush got from the MSM, Michael Moore, Hollywood, and everything else.  Bush wasn't just battling Kerry.  He was battling all those too.  That's why I picked him.  Although it was hard to go against Regan.  I won't deny that Clinton was certainly a great campaigner as well.  The problem I have is he had it really easy in 1996.  The press was on his side as well as the Republicans put up a candidate, who while a good an honorable man was not a good candidate.  It was just that it was Bob Dole's turn. 

Wow, tough choice. I think they each have their strong points. The thing I'll say about Bush is that I think he's highly intuitive and I think he's very mistakenly thought to be stupid by mainly the left. They just don't understand this guy and it's eveident. I don't think he's like much that they've faced before. When Bush attacks, it's an onslaught, it's sudden, it doesn't relent, it targets the opponent where the opponent is weakest and then spreads to other weak areas, and it's very effective. At the same time, it all-out invigorates his base. He brought out GOP voters like no other GOP President.

And it was tight - the left was absolutely united against him. They certainly weren't this united against Reagan and the right certainly wasn't this united against Clinton. The left was utterly dead set on removing Bush, and they did not do it, and against all of this Bush still hit 51% in the PV. The media attacks on Bush and the negative light in which he was cast were ridiculous. Kerry was placed in a very positive light. I think Bush does an outstanding job of coming across as a sleeves-up honest cowboy that's the last one you can count on to be there to cover your back. That strikes a chord with people to say the least in the post 9/11 world. So while I'm not necessarily saying he's the best campaigner, he deserves very much to be mentioned with the other people on this list. Bush is vastly underrated. I think he'll be looked back on, though, as not only an excellent President but an outstanding campaigner.

If nothing else, Bush has proven to have "coattails" in 2002 and 2004 with Congressional races, which is very rare in general and is almost unheard of for GOP Presidents.

I totally 100 percent agree with everything you said.  Republicans seem to have such a strong and loving affection for Bush.  I'm not even sure if Reagan had this much GOP support.   The fact that GOP has expanded it's lead in Congress like never before by riding Bush coattails shows this.  And I'm guessing this is why the left hates him so much. 

As a  pure campaigner Clinton & Reagan were pretty close.

Bush got 93.4% support from self Identified Republicans according to exit polls.

Reagan got 92.7% in 1984 according to exit polls.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!   Vorlon, I was hoping you would bring your political expertise into this discussion.  :)

Vorlon,

Let me ask you a hypothetical question.  If you had Clinton running against Reagan, when Reagan was in his prime, who do you think would win?

i think that Reagan was probably the best campaigner, but Clinton's a close-second.

hahaha . . . love the graphic, Reignman.

Interesting, still no votes for Ike or Nixon.   I guess most people on the board were probably not even born yet when Ike was Pres, and Nixon forever tarnished any compliment he might get as a good campaigner due to watergate

You don't think he should have won in 94 against Ann Richards for Texas Govenor?

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/blog_11_9_04_1030.html

I sure don't.  Many people look on that as an accidental election; not that the voters didn't mean to vote for him, but Ann Richards was pretty popular.  Bush overcame, though.

Nixon!!!

Ahhhhh.  The only vote for Nixon so far but it's from somebody who's proud to say it. 

Nixon lost in '60, bungled his '68 (iirc), and well, '72 was the Democrats' fault.

Although Checkers alone nearly puts him at the top of the list.

Bush, in 1994 he ran against a good Governor and won, in 2000 he ran against the Vice President of Peace and Prosperity and won, and in 2004 he was re-elected as a President of War and Recession and won.

Reagan racked up the biggest majorities though, and he has his own impressive gubernatorial race against Pat Brown, who defeated Nixon, in which he won by over a million votes.

Reagan definently took the word "Landslide" to a new level.  The problem I have is that I was only 7 years old when Reagan ran for re-election against Mondale.  So I don't remember much about it.  I'm not trying to take anything away from Clinton.  He was a great campaigner and knows how to give speeches.   In 92 he did overcome odds to beat Bush 41.  The problem I have was that in 96, he was more or less given a free ride into the right house.  Bob Dole was a good man, and I'm glad he got to have his moment in the sun.  But when the Republicans decided on Dole as their candidate, it was over before it ever began.  I would really like to see how Clinton would have done in re-election if he had a tough candidate and faced the kind of heat from the press that Bush did this year. 

When Reagan asks, in 1980, "Are you really better off today than you were four years ago?" with that grandfatherly sincerity, there were very few Americans with whom he did not connect.  Also, his ads were positive, effective, and moving.

Reagan was President from before I started kindergarten all the way into 6th grade.  His was the picture on the wall, above the alphabet strip, all through grade school.  He is the President, man.  Everyone since have just been replacements.

I remember I was in the 2nd grade when Reagan ran for re-election against Mondale.  We had our own little vote inside our classroom.  All the kids loved Reagan cause he smiled all the time and had that grandfather sincerity, like you said.  Nobody liked Mondale.  I remember the other kids kept saying "That guy's just mean."    The teacher tallied the votes up on the board.  All but 2 people voted Reagan.  Everytime she marked a vote for Reagan, the whole class cheered.  When the Mondale checks went up, everyone booed.  Ahhhhh, the good old days.