The 1796 Presidential Election – “Placing us in a Point of Opposition to Each Other”

“The public and the public papers have been much occupied lately in placing us in a point of opposition to each other.” So wrote Jefferson to Adams about the 1796 Presidential Election, America’s first with two candidates with true campaigns.  The letter didn’t reach its recipient, the opposing candidate of a party; the old friends…

Don’t Run for President: Candidates Who Ran, Didn’t Run, Didn’t Want to Run, or Didn’t Know They Were Running for President

A candidate who didn’t run for President.  A candidate who ran, but didn’t know he was running.  A candidate who didn’t want to run, but had no choice.  A candidate who ran without seeming to run, and a candidate who ran but died before the votes were counted.  An election that didn’t happen, but would…

What You Haven’t Been Told About The 1860 Election: Sam Houston vs. Lincoln, Woke Volunteers, Houseless Candidates and More

Abraham Lincoln running against…Sam Houston? It is not a far-fetched idea that Abraham Lincoln might have faced Texas hero Sam Houston in the election of 1860, as he  was under serious consideration to be the Whig Union candidate in what became a four-way Presidential election of 1860.  And he would have been a formidable challenger….

The “Gaffe-a-thon” of the 1976 Election

Jimmy Carter’s speechwriter said “We were 30 points up. But unfortunately we had to campaign.”  That’s how the general election of 1976 went. A tight race turns to a veritable battle of gaffes between two newbie Presidential candidates.  From plane weights to Soviets to love and lust and religion and race, a surprise challenger try…

Dewey Gets Mad: Another Look at the 1948 Election

Truman’s high-tech train, Dewey’s We Go High optimism and the defeat that made him cling to it, Truman’s risky calling of a Session of Congress and how it went badly for him in a few ways, and Dewey’s decision to get angry, unfortunately first at an average citizen and only later at his opponent.  These…

The Fifth Debate That Never Happened: 1960

After the four TV debates between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy in 1960, there was talk of a fifth.  That talk didn’t result in another TV debate, but did provide one more campaign issue for a very tight election, and developed a new thing – TV debate negotiations.    Among the reasons the debate…

Blaine, Washington, and Stories of Health and Sickness in Politics

From James Blaine’s fainting spell days before Republicans chose a candidate, to Washington’s extreme flu scare, to the SARS epidemic and a look at the Ever-So-Prescient Defoe’s Journal of a Plague Year, Health and Sickness and Politics.

John W. Davis Also Ran

When an obscure lawyer won a party’s nomination for President in a surprise convention choice, he used his platform to take on a hate group.