Home > The Secrecy File > Archives > 2008 > August > 25
Monday, August 25, 2008
“Landslide losers” not on Democratic primetime convention program
Dozens of prominent Democrats will have their moments in the sun at the party’s 2008 national convention this week, including its previous presidential nominees, with three major exceptions - George McGovern, Michael Dukakis and Walter Mondale.
Although “there is still a lot of affection in the party for Mondale and Dukakis and McGovern, to be brutally frank, they are landslide losers and the Democratic Party has a long list of them in modern times,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “There are three presidential losers (John Kerry, Al Gore and Jimmy Carter) on the agenda. That’s enough.”
McGovern lost in 1972 to Richard Nixon, Walter Mondale in 1984 to Ronald Reagan and Michael Dukakis in 1988 to George H.W. Bush, all in historic landslides.
On why none are on the convention list of speakers, Sabato commented, “If there’s one thing Democrats appear to be good at, it’s losing presidential elections they ought to have won. Obama doesn’t want to tempt fate, and he shouldn’t.”
