McCain: Worst candidate and campaign in the last 50 years?

[cali]

He's certainly the worst candidate I can recall. He's worse than Dole and worse and far worse than Mondale. Can anyone think of a candidate or campaign that's been worse?

[terrya]

1. This is certainly the worst campaign I've seen in my lifetime.

Astonishingly bad. They're letting McCain be McCain and as we're seeing, that's NOT a good idea.

[wileedog]

7. Just the opposite actually

They tried to turn McCain - who did have real, true appeal with a lot of Independents and moderates from both parties - into Reagan and Goldwater's illigitimate child. And then he stuck himself with an extreme Fundie nut case to boot.

If they had let McCain be McCain he would have tepid support at best from his base, but I think he would be running very strong with those center voters who don't really identify themselves strongly with either party and many others who simply don't think Obama has the experience.

I think he would be in a much better spot running as a true "maverick" than trying to remake himself as someone who always voted with Bush while he never voted with Bush.

[LWolf]

2. George W. Bush.

It's almost a toss up. A moron puppet with a megalomanic VP hidden behind the curtain, or a doddering fool suffering from dementia backed by a female cult member.

[cali]

4. yeah, but the bush campaign wasn't nearly as awful and bush

at least in 2000, didn't come off nearly as badly as McCain is.

[blm]

3. Bush1 in 92, but he did it intentionally. He expected impeachment after release of BCCI report

in Dec 1992. He and his powerful cronies involved in those illegal operations needed protection and knew it by 1991 - not to worry, Jackson Stephens had the solution.

McCain's campaign is unintentionally pathetic.

[LiberadorHugo]

5. 60 years...

Thomas Dewey ran an extremely weak campaign because he started so far ahead and did not want to bother rocking the boat.

[krkaufman]

6. Well, not for the Presidency, relative to the campaign performance, anyway.

I'm not sure McCain would be any worse or better than Bush, so that's a wash strictly on the candidate front.

edit: p.s. Though, on second thought, if the performance of one's campaign can be considered an indicator, McCain could be, somehow, monumentally worse than Bush. I wouldn't have thought it possible, but the antics of the McCain campaign certainly indicate an inability to develop a strategic plan and execute.

[TwilightZone]

8. I think the closest would be the Dole campaign.

I always felt, especially toward the end, that Dole simply didn't want to win and was just going through the motions. Dole, however, was being passively mediocre. McCain/Palin are being aggressively atrocious.