[JLS]

Thanks for the bump. It is really more and more apparent each presidential election cycle that if either party nominates a Senator, they are basically giving up?

When was the last member of Congress elected President?

G.W.Bush - Nope
Clinton - Nope
G.H.W. Bush - Nope, was a Congressman but won election after being a Veep.
Reagan - Nope
Carter - Nope
Ford - Never elected president
Nixon - Nope long before was a Senator, but was Veep and a private citizen for many years before elected.
Johnson - Assumed the job as a Veep but did win re-election.
Kennedy - Yep the one the press loves. Elected president as a Senator 44 years ago.
Ike - Nope
Truman - Nope was a Senator, but similar to LBJ first Veep, then assumed the job and reelected.
FDR - Nope we are not back to 1932 with one example.

And during this time various parties have nominated various senators like Dole, Mondale, Goldwater all going down to defeat.

[kevkrom]

Thanks for the bump. It is really more and more apparent each presidential election cycle that if either party nominates a Senator, they are basically giving up? When was the last member of Congress elected President?

There were only two sitting Senators elected to the Presidency in the 20th Century.

Part of the reason, and probably a big part, is that Senators are by nature of their positions, deliberate, consensus-seeking animals. They are not leaders in any classical sense of the word.

[mwl1]

You are not only correct, it is especially foolish for any party to nominate a member of the minority party in either Chamber of Congress... we will use the Senate rules to destroy him this summer and fall.

[GraniteStateConservative]

No, that's silly. McCain would have beaten Gore like a rented mule. Zell Miller would have been a great candidate against Bush.

[Wolfstar]

In all of American history, only three sitting U.S. senators were elected to the presidency, and only one sitting member of the U.S. House. The senators were Benjamin Harrison, Warren G. Harding, and John F. Kennedy. The member of the House was James Garfield. (Oddly, Garfield, Harding and Kennedy all died in office.)

There seems to be something deep and instinctive in the American character that prefers to elect presidents whose immediate job prior to winning the presidency was executive rather than legislative in nature. An overwhelming 91% of all presidents, to date, were either vice president, governor of their state, U.S. secretary of state, ambassador, or military general immediately prior to becoming president, although several had served in the House and/or Senate earlier in their lives.

Even the nation's only unelected president, Gerald Ford, had served as vice president (also unelected) before ascending to the presidency when Nixon resigned.

Does this mean Kerry can't win? No, but the weight of history is against him.

[proudpapa]

Wasn't Moondale the VP for Jimma?