Rank non-incumbent U.S. presidential nominees by electability since WW2

[Orser67]

Rank non-incumbents major party U.S. presidential nominees by electability since WW2. What I mean by electability is how strong of a candidate they are in the general election. If you just want to do since 2000 or whenever, that's fine.

[Orser67]

My tiers:

GOAT tier: Eisenhower
Very good tier: None
Good tier: Kennedy, Nixon ('60 and '68), Bush '88, Obama
Average tier: Stevenson ('52 and '56), Humphrey, Reagan, Clinton '92, Kerry, Romney
Below average tier: Dewey, Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Dole, Gore, McCain, Clinton '16, Trump
Bad tier: Goldwater, McGovern

[😥]

Dwight Eisenhower

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Eisenhower because electability mattered more than. Other GOP nominees could have lost in 1952.

[thumb21]

I'd say probably Bush I. He could have easily lost that election, but was able to turn it around.

He was the only one on that list who won as the nominee for a party that had already been in power for 8 years - and by a sizeable margin.

The others who won solid victories: Eisenhower, Reagan, Clinton and Obama already had a lot going for them.

[Orser67]

I'd say probably Bush I. He could have easily lost that election, but was able to turn it around.

He was the only one on that list who won as the nominee for a party that had already been in power for 8 years - and by a sizeable margin.

I agree that it's an impressive feat, and I think Bush sometimes gets overlooked as a political figure because he lost re-election and is in Reagan's shadow. A lot of times Reagan is given all the credit for Bush winning in '88, and while there's some truth to that, in the aftermath of Iran-Contra Reagan wasn't the electoral titan he had been in '88. On the other hand, one could argue that Bush faced a particularly weak opponent in Dukakis.

[dw93]

Eisenhower is the obvious answer. The Republicans were favored, but a Taftite could've lost it and I would argue it was Ike that made 52 a landslide.  After that, I would say Clinton '92, Dubya in 2000, and Reagan in 1980 in that order.