Had Goldwater won, we would likely not exist, what with the resulting nuclear holocaust and all . Personally I'm curious what these past 8 years would have been like with a President Gore. Maybe not the best president, but we would have avoided one of the worst .
I won't speak for others....but initially I thought a Cuomo candidacy would have been really interesting. However, after weeks and weeks of his Hamlet-like pontificating on whether he would enter the race or not, like many critics of the young Danish prince, I was thinking "either pick up the sword and start stabbing people or STFU."
It's interesting to hear what people were saying about RFK's prospects before he got shot. Had he lived the odds of political success were very much against him. Death elevated the man as it has few others. Whatever your view this is fascinating video: Some people believe that if Robert F. Kennedy had not been assassinated in early June 1968, he surely would have made it to the White House. Some of them are convinced Kennedy's victory in the California Democratic primary over Senator Eugene McCarthy guaranteed him his party's presidential nomination. However this is simply not so. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMr97_M7okw
I think Nixon would have been great in '60. Getting jobbed by the Kennedy clan in '60 kinda messed with his noggin I think.
Why the skepticism? Nixon was familiar with Khruschev - more so than Kennedy was. Nixon's later foreign policy was famous for detente and recognition of Red China. Kennedy's performance in the Cuban Missile Crisis was magnificent, especially given the horrible botch he made with the Bay of Pigs, but if there was another man who might have done as well, it was the Trickster.
Fair enough. I'm just glad JFK+RFK were in power when that happened. We'll never know otherwise. It will be nice to get a President in 2008 that understands the world around him(or her) again.
I like the "McCain in 2000" comment. I actually gave money to his campaign hoping he'd beat Bush. I would very likely have voted for him against a poor version of Gore in the same year. I never considered myself to be a liberal before Bush came to power--but now that I've seen the enemy (him, his coterie of crooks, the people who voted for him), I'm as liberal as they come and proud of it. Something has happened to the Republican party to make it unrecognizable from when I was growing up in the 1980s. Unrecognizable and disgusting. Jesus, eternal war, profligate spending, and on and on. Yet, if I'm honest with myself, trying to remember how I felt in those innocent pre-Bush days of 2000, I would've voted McCain over Gore.
Depends how much faith you have that Obama will get elected. Fareed Zakaria has a great article on this subject in the new Newsweek out.
In all honesty, I don't think Obama has a hope in hell. We have come a long way in race relations, but I have seen too many examples of voters saying one thing to the pollsters and doing another when they get in the ballot box. But I really hope that I'm wrong.
I really do think you are wrong on this. There may be a minority that would say that and then do something different due to race. Further more, most who would be doing that would likely not support his policies and not be a potential voter anyway.
Well, I will tell you this much, despite the fact that I am not representative of any specific faction: There is not a single candidate from the Republican party that I would not vote for if Hillary was the Democratic nominee. There are only two Republican candidates that I would vote for if Obama was the Democratic nominee: Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee.
Good post. After all, we know there is no way a relatively inexperienced Congressman from Illinois can win the Presidential election.
I, on the other hand, have already made a list of candidates I will definitely not vote for, even if I have to vote third party: Hillary Clinton John Edwards Rudy Giuliani Mike Huckabee I may not vote for Mitt Romney or Barack Obama. Depends on how their views change as they progress if nominated.
Alexander Hamilton – Easily one of the most influential Founding Fathers who never became President. Daniel Webster - Same level of statesman as Clay and Calhoun. Sen. Richard Lugar - Another great statesman and one-time Presidential candidate. Has more foreign policy experience and knowledge than any other living American. Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf. – "I WANT HOLYFIELD! I WANT HOLYFIELD! I showed you what these guns can do in the Middle East, and now I'm gonna show you what they can do in the ring!" Richard J Daley – I can’t say he would be the best President, but definitely an interesting one.
HA! I have a history professor that is obsessed with that lady. ...But he also says that Harding was the best US President.