Exactly!!!
First you have Carter, who won the election over Ford by a whooping 100K votes nation wide. Of course the biggest thing against Ford, was that he pardoned Nixon. Interestingly, the only reason Carter was running is because no one thought he could win. The democrats thought Ford would still be so popular, as to be undefeatable. So they let Carter, who had a 2% name recognition nation wide, run for office. Even when Carter himself, told his family that he would run for president, his own mother asked "President of what?"
First he reintroduces price caps, that instantly send the nation into an energy crisis. He then denies support to an ally in Iran, which leads to them being over thrown. Doesn't protect our people in the US embassy. Botches a hasty poorly planned rescue attempt which results in millions of dollars worth in US military hardware being used by anti-US Iranians. Then loses to Reagan so badly, that only six states in the entire union vote for him, with an electoral count of 49 to 489.
Interestingly, this was posted to a democrat website. Maybe a clandestine conservative over there.
Then 1984 election, Reagan runs against some guy no one can even remember. Ol what's his name, a hold over from Carters screwed up years, loses so badly that most of the left refuse to even admit he was a candidate. His most brilliant move was saying "Let's tell the truth. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did." The result was about as predictable as Carters loss before him. One thing can be said, Walter Mondale at least won his home state of Minnesota. Of course that was the only state he won, with a 20 point loss in popular vote.
1988 showed was a loser Michael Dukakis was. After getting tired of being accused of not knowing much about the military, which was accurate, he staged the infamous M1 tank ad, where he looked like a cartoon reject. Meanwhile Bush Sr promised in his campaign "Read my lips: No new taxes!". Dukakis somehow managed to carry 10 states for 111 electoral votes, but still lost.
After the end of the first Gulf War, Bush Sr ratings were so high that no one thought he could be defeated. So the democrats let some no name from Arkansas run for president. Sound familiar? Like Carter before him, Clinton only got onto the ticket because none of the democrats thought the Republican in office could be defeated. And they were right.
No one could defeat Bush Sr, but Bush himself. After pledging years before to never raise taxes, he signed a large tax increase. That combined with the predictable economic decline and recession that follows an increase in taxes, Bush opened the door for the third party candidate Ross Perot.
The split in the conservative vote, over shadowed the multiple flip-flops of Clinton. First being against family values, then for them. Against tax cuts, then for them. Against NAFTA, then for it. Clinton was the first president in five elections to win with less than 50% of the vote. Ironically, or fittingly, the last one to do that was Nixon.
Of course Clinton's legacy of being the first impeached president, is fitting to how the rest of the world views him.
Parade in Germany.
