Hell, George McGovern couldn’t even get the democrat nomination today! Let alone JFK or a Hubert Humphrey.
They trot out old Bob Dole because Gerald Ford is now dead. And in ten years they’ll ask Mitt Romney if he could get the “nomination today” when he shouldn’t have gotten it then, and that was just last year.
Bob Dole should never have been the nominee of the Republican Party. He was forced upon us as John McCain and Mitt Romney were, and also the Bushes.
Reagan was the only man, through the power of his ideas and power of speaking, to get through the establishment’s gauntlet, and he won a 44 state victory then a 49 state victory. And the republican establishment has been doing everything in its power since to prevent such victories (and overwhelming democratic defeats) again!
Hadn’t thought about McGovern, but you are right.