Politicians that spectacularly threw away goodwill very quickly

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

- Matteo Renzi seemingly rescuing the PD and for a short while the entire European centre-left, and then eating his own propaganda ("I am a political genius who can do anything") and becoming yet another busted flush.

- nick Clegg clegging things up

There's definitely more - Eamon Gilmore, Yukio Hatoyama etc etc

[EPG]

- Matteo Renzi seemingly rescuing the PD and for a short while the entire European centre-left, and then eating his own propaganda ("I am a political genius who can do anything") and becoming yet another busted flush.

- nick Clegg clegging things up

There's definitely more - Eamon Gilmore, Yukio Hatoyama etc etc

In the first 3 cases, economic circumstances were totally against them and there was a parliamentary majority against their original platforms, large in the cases of Renzi and Gilmore. Clegg and Gilmore, in particular, were not major-party politicians nor is it clear if they started with any goodwill to begin with.

More interesting is politicians who actually threw away goodwill from a position of strength. Think of the tennis distinction of "unforced errors". Global example #1 right now, I'd say, Justin Trudeau.

[mvd10]

Didn't Hollande crash pretty quickly?

VVD 2012 also was hilarious. After running a quite right-wing campaign incumbent PM Rutte got re-elected, but he had to govern with the centre-left Labour Party/PvdA. After the new government's plan to make healthcare premiums partially means-tested came out the centre-right VVD dropped to 13-15% in the polls (they won 27% of the vote 2 months earlier). In the end they reversed the decision and gave the PvdA something else, but the new government started badly. Ironically after 5 years people accused the PvdA of selling out too much while the general consensus at the start of the new government's term was that the VVD sold out too much. But the PvdA also lost seats very quickly (matter of weeks).

[Hash]

Didn't Hollande crash pretty quickly?

Yes, his popularity collapsed very quickly and never recovered outside exceptional circumstances. But he didn't have tons of goodwill to begin with: he defeated an unpopular incumbent by a much narrower margin than all polls had predicted for months (of course, I knew that he'd never win by the absurdly huge margins runoff polls in 2011/early 2012 predicted), and a good chunk of the left was already very skeptical of him and only gave him a very, very short-lived respite/benefit of the doubt in the highs of victory. Mélenchon had famously called him a 'pedal boat captain' and his primary weakness in the 2011 PS primary was being seen as insufficiently leftist/too vague and soft. I don't think many people on the left, even in the wake of his victory, were overly enthusiastic or enthralled by Flanby (certainly not the jubilation and real enthusiasm which followed a similar 51-49 election in 1981). Looking back, in the immediate highs of victory, Flanby's honeymoon only gave him a 55-60% approval rating, which isn't spectacularly high.

A better example might be Sarkozy: my opinion may be coloured by the fact that I was an enthusiastic sarkozyste in 2007, because a lot of the left couldn't stand him from the moment he stepped into power (and before), but there was - on the right, far-right and 'the centre' - some degree of genuine optimism and goodwill that accompanied his election, with high hopes that he would be a fresh face, a no-nonsense reformist, the start of a new era etc. That's certainly how I felt at the time, but then again I was a dumb teenager then. His honeymoon was short-lived as well (although lasted a bit longer than Flanby, even if Sarkozy got into controversies basically from the night of his election with a succession of bling-bling Eurotrash stupidities) but his popularity got up to 60-70% in polls. The UMP was widely expected to win a massive legislative majority rivalling that of 2002 and 1993, and did very well in the first round of the legislative elections (even if turnout was low), only to significantly under-perform in the second round.

[cp]

John Major lost his sheen pretty quickly after the 1992 election, but he also won that election after 2 years in power so not the best example.

Joe Clark in Canada never started with much support when he took office in 1979. Losing a confidence vote he shouldn't have (and then losing the election) sent him even lower.

Another UK example: Gordon Brown in 2007 was super popular, mostly because people were happy to see the back of Blair after 10 years. When he balked at calling a snap election he lost a lot of support and never really recovered.

People often forget how popular Jimmy Carter was when he came into office in 1977. Most of that had to do with getting out from under Vietnam and Watergate, which was largely due to his predecessor, but he had very impressive approval ratings for his first few months, but they declined precipitously. Aside from the temporary bumps after the Camp David Accord and the boycott of the USSR, he never gained his popularity back.

Other candidates from the US include Herbert Hoover (that Depression, man), George H.W. Bush after the First Gulf War, and George W. Bush after September 11th.

[DC Al Fine]

Brian Mulroney went from 50% of the vote to third place in the polls in about a year and a half.

Of course the best example is Kim Campbell going from a modest polling lead to a mere two seats in a campaign which included ads making fun of her opponent's facial deformities

[EPG]

I would say John Major is the opposite of this thread, perhaps the biggest over-achiever relative to his inheritance & prospects in UK political history (and his social background too, while we're at it).

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

If I'm not mistaken this thread is not about "who quickly lost more support?"

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

It's amazing how little it takes for some leaders, thought to be some sort of political geniuses, to crash and burn due to one misstep or miscalculation. Aside of Renzi mentioned by CrabCake Theresa May comes to mind. "Wow, what a great move to call the GE with Labour with its pants down!"

It's somewhat reminds me of U.S. presidential candidate who receives a lot of hype and look great on paper, just to reveal themselves total duds once they started running (Jeb and Rubio are just two very recent examples).

[courts]

George W. Bush after September 11th.

yeah that's what immediately came to mind

[Mike88]

In Portugal, many come to mind: Guterres, enormous potential but unable to control his party; Sócrates, had a majority to make big reforms in the country and then... well, the rest is history; Passos Coelho, had a huge opportunity to clean Portugal after the Sócrates mess, yes he had the bailout to manage, but was weak in persuing essential reforms the country truly needs.

Around the world, Theresa May comes to mind and, like it was mentioned above, George W. Bush.

[Fuzzy Bear]

LBJ

[DC Al Fine]

If I'm not mistaken this thread is not about "who quickly lost more support?"

Oh, if that's the case, definitely Kim Campbell's campaign running ads making fun of her opponent's facial deformity.

[Karpatsky]

Yushchenko might qualify - after the Orange Revolution he had a serious mandate with a large chunk of the country, only to throw it away because he couldn't build a cabinet which knew what it was doing.