Most Decent Contenders To Not Become POTUS

[troosvelt_68]

Like it says on the tin, who do you find the most decent people who ran for but didn't become POTUS.

Doesn't mean you have to agree with them on issues, just that you respect them.

Preferably one or more from each party

For example my clear 1st choice is Hubert Humphrey... I certainly have areas where we'd have disagreed on issues but he strikes me as one of the most fundamentally decent human beings in 20th century politics.

For the GOP I'll start with John McCain, again someone I didn't always agree with but a genuine war hero and a class act.

These are, of course, two of the biggies, so I will chime in later with more but I'd love to hear from the rest of you

 

[dw93]

Edmund Muskie, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, just to name a few.

 

[GuildedAgeNostalgia]

William Jennings Bryan

 

[hwyl]

Adlai Stevenson, George Romney.

 

[Deleted member 177304]

William Jennings Bryan, Nelson Rockefeller, George Romney, Jerry Brown, Mo Udall, Al Gore, Howard Baker, Thomas Dewey, Adlai Stevenson

 

[DanMcCollum]

Adlai Stevenson, George Romney.

I'll second those.

Robert M. LaFollette (I mean, I HAVE to list him - It's kinda my thing at this point )

Also McGovern - and not just because I have to respect a fellow regional historian.

 

[CanadianPol]

Margaret Chase Smith, Harold Stassen, Floyd Olson, Hubert Humphrey, George Romney, George McGovern, Mo Udall, Hugh Carey, Chuck Percy, Birch Bayh, Frank Church, Millicent Fenwick, Brendan Byrne, Reuben Askew, Gary Hart, Bill Bradley, Olympia Snowe, and so many more.

 

[Don Corleone]

I'd exclude Rockefeller, Gore, and Hart on the basis of extramarital affairs.

 

[Strategos' Risk]

Howard Dean

 

[1940LaSalle]

Jack Kemp; Colin Powell

 

[PresidentZinn]

Doesn’t this belong in chat?

 

[Alex Zetsu]

Doesn’t this belong in chat?

Hard to tell... 2nd millennium politics tend to be considered "old enough" to not be current politics unless it refers to a current office holder, but the OP explicitly mentioned McCain.

 

[Mikestone8]

.Charles Evans Hughes; Champ Clark

 

[Mynock]

George Romney for the Rs, Birch Bayh for the Ds.

 

[marktaha]

I'd exclude Rockefeller, Gore, and Hart on the basis of extramarital affairs.

How does that affect their ability to be President? May I add Pat Moynihan(

 

[David Floyd]

Probably have to include Bernie Sanders.

 

[Fire and shadow]

Doesn’t this belong in chat?

I think it would have to be in the last 10-15 years for chat.

 

[Don Corleone]

How does that affect their ability to be President? May I add Pat Moynihan(

Question isn't their effectiveness as President. It's what kind of people they are.

If those were perfectly correlated Carter would be the GOAT.

 

[Alex Zetsu]

Question isn't their effectiveness as President. It's what kind of people they are.

If those were perfectly correlated Carter would be the GOAT.

But there is a certain degree of correlation.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

Bob Dole