What a weird election...

[cos]

1980: George HW Bush runs in Republican primaries, doesn't win, becomes Vice Presidential nominee
1984: George HW Bush is again the VP nominee
1988: George HW Bush wins Republican nomination, and presidency
1992: Bill Clinton vs. George HW Bush
1996: Bill Clinton re-elected president
2000: George W Bush wins Republican nomination, and presidency
2004: George W Bush re-elected president
2008: Hillary Clinton runs in Democratic primaries
2012: No Clintons ran. No Bushes ran. Is this even allowed anymore???

Seriously, this hasn't happened since the 70s.

How many of you were alive the last time the US had a presidential campaign with no Clintons or Bushes on the ballot?

Comments

[geminigirl]

Chelsea Clinton will be old enough to run in 2016. Just barely.

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

. . . Oh God, that means I will too! *feels old* ;P

[cos]

So now that you're old, wise, and venerable... are you running?

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

Oh hell no, I won't go!

(Something tells me I'd be a lot better at the Taoist Sage method of running a country than the American method. . . ;P)

[pseydtonne.livejournal.com]

I was born in 1975, so I was a baby during the 1976 election.

[geminigirl]

Same here. I don't remember the 1980 election at all, but I do vaguely remember the hostages being released in January 1981.

[cos]

Our family moved to the US in 1977, so the 1980 election is the first one I remember here.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Wow. Not I.

[withoutwords.livejournal.com]

Wow! I had not thought of that! How eerie...

[rmd.livejournal.com]

I remember one of my brothers doing work for the McGovern campaign, and I was in grade school for the 1976 campaign.

[kirin]

By about six weeks. So me memory is a little hazy. ;)

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

I was!

[anhinga-anhinga.livejournal.com]

> no Clintons or Bushes on the ballot

ha! perhaps this country is becoming a better place...

[youvebeenpixied.livejournal.com]

I was. My very first memory of an election, I was in the fifth grade and living in California. My mom got home from work and we walked down the hill to my school, maybe 1.5 or 2 miles, all the while she was telling me about voting and why it is important and why she was voting for her candidate. When we got back up the hill and turned on the TV, Jimmy Carter was giving his concession speech. She was so disappointed. She must have said, "My vote didn't count'" a dozen times. I still get sad thinking about the look on her face.

Of course, this was the 1980 election, so the first one listed here. It is the first one I remember, but I was alive for a couple more before that :)

[cos]

Similar for me - I was alive for a couple of elections before 1980, but I was in Israel (and actually Uganda for part of the campaign for one of them) until 1977 so 1980 is the first one I remember. Wanting Carter to win and being disappointed when Reagan won is the thing I remember most, though I no longer clearly remember why I wanted Carter to win. I remember shortly after he became president I saw on the news that Reagan had passed new rules restricting press access to government information in some way, undoing a Carter policy that had opened up access.

[ron_newman]

My first memory of a presidential election was 1964. My dad had me helping him leaflet our Memphis neighborhood for LBJ.

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

Alive by Election Day '60. Remember '68. Volunteered in '72.

If you add Nixon to the criteria, this was only the third election without them since 1948.

[annodomini.livejournal.com]

Well, the Kennedy dynasty has continued, at least in Massachusetts. It's true that the Presidential ballot was bereft of dynasty this year, but if you look at any national elected office instead of President, we have a continuous string of Kennedys, Bushes, and Clintons running all the way back to 1947.

[cos]

There are plenty of local/regional things like this, in one state or a small cluster, but there hasn't been a Kennedy in a presidential race since 1980, and other than that, most states have never had a Kennedy in any of their statewide races.

[rightkindofme.livejournal.com]

Born in '81.

[missionista.livejournal.com]

Reagan/Carter 1980 was the first election I remember, but Carter is the first president I remember. I was very upset that Reagan won. I wrote a letter to Carter when I was but wee, telling him how to solve the inflation problems of the time.

It makes me VERY happy to think that Obama will be the first president that Theda remembers, even though it is very unlikely she will remember this election.

[cos]

What was your advice to Carter?

What will Theda advise Obama about?

[goljerp]

Well, if it makes you feel better, Bill Clinton was out on the campaign trail for Obama. :-)

And there is a possibility that Hillary will run in 2016... and some talking heads on TV were talking about Jeb Bush in 2016, also...

But to answer the question, yes... although like several others I remember Carter's presidency more than the '76 election.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

There was a lot of buzz about trying to get Jeb Bush to run in the primary, does that count?

[roamin-umpire.livejournal.com]

Not I. I'm just old enough that I could have run in this election. But... nuh-uh. Sounds like a recipe for a miserable rest-of-my-life.