4 – George McGovern (1972 Election)
You might be surprised to see four nominees from within the last 50 years but quite frankly, there have been a huge amount of terrible candidates in modern history! McGovern was a pretty woeful candidate and he limped to one of the most pathetic electoral performances ever seen.
The South Dakota senator became known for his outspoken criticism of the Vietnam War and was considered a model of modern American liberalism. When he announced that he was running for President in January 1971, he was given little chance of even securing the Democrat nomination as he was a long way behind front-runner Edmund Muskie. By January 1972, he only had 3% national support amongst his party and his candidacy appeared doomed.
However, the Muskie campaign fell apart with bad organization and lack of funds and another leading contender, Hubert Humphrey, was defeated by the surging McGovern. He only secured the Democrat nomination in July 1972 however and had to quickly pick a running mate. This search proved to be a complete disaster as he was turned down by several people including Ted Kennedy. Almost in a panic, he picked Thomas Eagleton without performing the correct level of vetting.
The last night of the Democrat convention was a complete farce as procedural arguments resulted in McGovern giving his ‘Come Home America’ speech at 3 am Florida time. A prime-time speech had a potential audience of 70 million; this was reduced to 15 million by the time he arrived on the podium. Things got worse when it was revealed that Eagleton had received electroshock therapy on several occasions for depression and nervous exhaustion in the 1960s. He withdrew and was replaced by Sargent Shriver, JFK’s brother-in-law. McGovern made another blunder by making a speech where he said he was 1,000% behind Eagleton only to drop him soon afterwards.
Nixon on the other hand was riding the crest of a wave and did relatively little campaigning. It didn’t matter because an element of the Democrats had deserted McGovern and some even endorsed Nixon. By election week, McGovern knew he was finished and told a Nixon supporter to “kiss my ass” at a rally. He won just 37.5% of the popular vote and was beaten 520-17 in electoral votes. McGovern didn’t even win his home state of South Dakota!
The manner of his defeat caused a sea-change in Democrat thinking. McGovern was considered to be too far left so the party as a whole began making their way towards the center for fear of another election drubbing. After Barry Goldwater was thrashed in the 1964 Election, the Republican Party embraced his radical conservatism instead of fleeing from it. After McGovern’s loss, the Democrats endured a miserable 20 years whereas the Republicans rebounded from Goldwater’s loss which actually paved the way for Ronald Reagan’s presidency.