The Other Guys

10 questions about the men who quested for the highest office and lost.  Strangely, each and every one would have destroyed America if elected, so next time someone tells you America is terrible at picking presidents, just remind them of that.  The answers are all names of the President who won the election.

1-  Even though he later won an election for president, John Adams also lost twice to the same man, though he did manage to place second in electoral voting both times, beating out such luminaries as John Jay, Robert H Harrison, John Rutledge, and George Clinton.  Who beat the esteemed Mr Adams twice?

2- Going into the election, George B McClellan seemed like he had a good shot at unseating the incumbent.  The country had been at war for roughly 3 years, and most people were tired of the war that looked like it may never end.  Sadly for McClellan, the war started to accelerate towards its conclusion in the latter stages of the election year with total victory looking more and more certain.  Soldiers in the army overwhelmingly voted for the incumbent, and McClellan faded into history as a mediocre general and failed presidential candidate.  Who did he lose the election to?

3- Benjamin Harrison has the unique honor of being the only person to unseat an incumbent president and then lose the next election to the same man.  It probably didn't help his case that his opponent shared his last name with a city that would later host an NFL franchise.  It is well known that, unless you are a concussion, you do not go up against the NFL and win.  Who did Harrison lose to?

4- Despite having a glorious moustache, Alton B Parker couldn’t compete with the man who later won the  presidential election.    Imagine if Alton had won?  We’d have Alty Bears and the faces on Mount Rushmore would have at least one different face gazing out on America.  Who beat Alton B Parker?

5- Most men who run for president only leave one or two broken and dispirited men cast out in the trash can of history.  This man is the only one to beat opponents in four separate elections.   Of the four, Herbert Hoover at least got to be president for four years before losing, and Thomas Dewey got a more famous headline later.  Wendell Willkie and Alf Landon?  Assigned to the losers with odd sounding names.  Who beat all four of these men?

6- Speaking of Thomas E Dewey, he was the last presidential candidate to have facial hair (in this case, a very smart looking moustache.)  He also was the Dewey of the famous Chicago Daily Tribune newspaper headline that declared him the winner of the election.  Who, contrary to the Chicago paper headline, was not defeated by Dewey?

7- The 1972 election was the last time a third party candidate received a vote in the Electoral College.   John Hospers won one as the first candidate of the Libertarian Party, and George McGovern won seventeen as the candidate of the Democratic Party.  Which later despised President won by a landslide with 520 EC votes?

8-Former vice president Walter Mondale lost in the biggest Electoral College landslide in US history, winning only his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia .  Which incumbent president won 49 states, and a record 525 votes in the Electoral College?

9- According to the internet which he invented, Al Gore ‘lost’ the 2000 election in the Electoral College, even though he won a majority of the popular vote.  The main villain in this piece is, of course, Ralph Nader, who guaranteed that no progressive will vote anything but Democratic for the foreseeable future.  Who ‘won’ the 2000 election by virtue of a Supreme Court Decision (and a majority in the Electoral College)?

10- 1-      Arizona Senator John McCain lost the 2008 election by a comfortable margin to the current president.  According to Nate Silver’s 538 blog, the winner of the 2008 election has, as of Monday night, a 91% chance of getting reelected.  Who is this current president?  (Please, for the love of God do not get this wrong.)






Answers-

1- George Washington
2- Abraham Lincoln
3- Grover Cleveland
4- Teddy Roosevelt
5- Franklin D Roosevelt
6- Harry S Truman
7- Richard Nixon
8- Ronald Reagan
9- George W Bush
10- Barack Obama