RIP, Sargent Shriver, a great and patriotic American.
National Journal obit here. An appreciation here.
As far as the 1970s being odd: Sargent Shriver, Tom Eagleton, Jimmy Carter, Bob Dole, Spiro Agnew, Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald Ford, George McGovern, Richard Nixon, Walter Mondale. All held national office or were nominated as part of a national (major party) ticket over the span of 1972-1976. That's ten people, or two more than the maximum you would get from just two sets of completely different tickets in the two elections (as in for example 2004-2008). It wasn't just the clothes and the hair, folks.
(And play with this one: outside of Agnew, I might argue that all of the VPs or VP candidates would have made better presidents than any of the presidents or presidential candidates).
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
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President Bob Dole better than Gerald Ford? More entertaining, sure, but still. And President Tom Eagleton? Shocking supposition...
ReplyDeleteAre you counting Ford count as a President or Vice President?
ReplyDeleteAs entertaining a thought as that is, I really don't think that works with the Republican tickets in 1972 and 1976. Though sure, it is a fascinating hypothetical to think of what a Rockefeller presidency would've been like.
ReplyDeleteFord was better than Ford?
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of Ford as president. FWIW. I think he's clearly the best of that group of presidents, although that's not saying much. So that's the bar to top.
ReplyDeleteEagleton had a reputation as a pretty good Senator. Rockefeller? Well, I don't now.
Dole's strength and weakness were the same: he apparently didn't really hold any issue positions strongly. I could see him turning into a Nixon, but I could also see him having encouraged a non-crazy, non-Nixonite conservative GOP if he was successful.