Recent general-election wins don’t seem to count much in the GOP presidential primary this cycle. Three of the contenders won last year, and while Ron Paul has a shot at winning Iowa, he’s certainly far from being the frontrunner; the other two candidates who won last year, Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, will be in considerable trouble with disappointing finishes in Iowa.
It has been roughly a decade since either of the recent frontrunners won a general election, and Romney’s 2002 win in the Massachusetts gubernatorial race was his only general-election win of his career.
Candidates in order of most-recent general election win:
Michele Bachmann: 2010
Ron Paul: 2010
Rick Perry: 2010
Jon Huntsman: 2008
Mitt Romney: 2002
Rick Santorum: 2000
Newt Gingrich: 1998
I'm not sure any of this information is really relevant. Nixon's last general election win before he won the Presidency in '68 occurred in '58 when he was Ike's VP. Reagan's last general election win before winning the Presidency in '80 occurred in '70 when he won a second term as Governor of California. Although elections were much different back then, Lincoln had a 14-year gap between winning his one term as a Congressman in 1846 and winning the Presidency in 1860.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat general election did Jon Huntsman win in 2008? Must have been a pretty short term if he's been BHO's ambassador to China ever since.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHe won re-election as Governor of Utah in 2008. He resigned early in his second term to become President Obama's Ambassador to China.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhen Nixon was elected president in 1968, he hadn't won a general election in 12 years (since he was reelected as VP in 1956), having lost general elections in 1960 (president) and 1962 (governor of CA). When Reagan was elected president in 1980, he hadn't won a general election in 10 years (since he was reelected governor of CA in 1970). So Romney, Santorum and Gingrich having gone 10, 12 and 14 years, respectively, since winning a general election is by no means an impediment to their odds of winning in November.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBefore the primaries are over, it would be nice if there were a few primaries that actually happened. But what do I know, I am just a cow.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhich make's Rick Perry's "I've just been getting started" and "These guys are old pros at this" line all that much more disingenuous.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is a lot more relevant stat than supporters of Romney (and Gingrich) will like to admit. Counterexamples from the 1860s probably don't apply. The two chief relevant ones are Nixon and Reagan, not exactly recent. Moreover, each man had occupied a far more visible elected office than any of the 2012 crop has, one as VP of the USA for 8 years, the other as givernor of the largest state for two terms.
By comparison, Santorum's and Romney's statewide offices are quite obscure on a national scale.
Gingrich at least had a position as Speaker that is a lot higher-profile than the typical Congressman's.
Paul and Bachman have never won a statewide race. Paul came up way short in a primary race for Senator once. Bachman is strictly a "local" candidate who has trouble winning her own R+7 district.
Only Perry has a recent win in a high-profile state, in a statewide office.
Look at the reecnt nominees and electees: Obama, McCain, Kerry, Bush, Gore, Dole, Clinton, Bush 41, Dukakis, and Reagan in 84. The last time a party nominated a person who wasn't a current officeholder was Mondale in 1984, and the last time such a candidate was elected was Reagan in 80. That's not exactly a great track record in the last third of a century. And the plentiful counterexamples from the prior four decades - Nixon in 68, Stevenson in 56, and the never-before-elected Eisenhower and Wilkie - serve mostly to emphasize that this is not 1940 or 1968 and that we no longer do things that way.
We're not going to nominate a pizza executive who has never held elected office, even if that sort of thing made sense, to some, in Wilkie's era. And we're not likely to dust off a politician from six or 13 years ago and try to kickstart his comeback tour, to the disappointment of backers of Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich. This isn't 1980 or 1968. And Mitt Romney is no Ronald Reagan, any more than Rick Santorum is a Richard Nixon. The current pols are political pygmies (may I say that) compared to VP Nixon and California Governor Reagan.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePalin Governor 2006
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