The perfect election campaign

by Cliopatria

Over at POTUS are a couple of interesting posts by Rick Shenkman. One has made the HNN front page. It centers on what Rick considers an excessive Democratic longing for an Obama candidacy. The other is a follow up, in which the question is broached as to whether “boss politics” did a better job of selecting candidates and therefore president than the current system does.

If you want to address that, go there. My question to you is this: has there ever been in the US something close to the perfect presidential election campaign? My definition of “perfect” echoes our original republicanism. I mean that the candidates were strong, the debate meaningful, and the outcome not too bad.

Let me suggest a candidate: Eisenhower versus Stevenson (1952).

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Oscar Chamberlain - 10/30/2006

Interesting shoice. I think you may be right. Whatever one thinks of Progressive reformers, they usually articulated their goals clearly.

As for Wilson, his first term was certainly a success by most standards.

HAVH Mayer - 10/27/2006

1912 offered something for everyone: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft, Debs, all men of considerable distinction, and plenty of issues. As to the outcome - depends what you think of Wilson.

HNN - 10/27/2006

Interesting year you picked. 1952 was the first presidential election in which television affected the course of events.

First TV turned the little-known Estes Kefauver into a national hero in the crime hearings (but for the opposition of the bosses he woiuld have been nominated; he won nearly all the primaries he entered).

Then TV gave millions of viewers a front row seat at the conventions (the '49 conventions had been sporadically covered by TV).

During the fall campaign Ike ran the firtst TV commercials (which were disparaged by Stevenson as the work of the magicians on Madison Avenue).

Finally, Nixon used television to save his career in the famous Checkers speech.

All this adds up to -- in my mind anyway -- a mixed legacy. Here we have the first of many elections in which television would play the disastrous and destructive role for which it has now become well-known.

I happen to like Ike. I'm glad he won in '52. But I can't think back on that election without trepedidation for what was to come.