Has anyone challenged a president from within?

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2004-02-05 04:13pm

I should know the answer to this question but has anyone ever challenged a sitting president from within his own party? For example a Republican coming out to challenge Bush for the nomination or have the parties clamped down on those kind of actions?

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2004-02-05 04:21pm

The last person to do this was when Teddy Roosevelt challenged Taft for the nomination. Basically, you have to have a HUGE cult of personality and a lot of people with you first. If it happened again, the result would be the same: Split the ticket and the other guy wins, or you just lost big because no one supported you.

I like the quote from West Wing:

Josh: To challenge the incumbent President from your own party would be the craziest thing a Vice President has done since Aaron Burr, and he SHOT a guy.

Dark Hellion · Post by **Dark Hellion** » 2004-02-05 04:53pm

This is slightly off-topic, but when I saw the thread title I got this image of a little space ship shooting a laser at George Bush's heart.
I think the pretzel already tried this approach. It failed, much to some peoples dismay.

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2004-02-05 05:14pm

Teddy Kennedy ran against Jimmy Carter during the 1980 primaries.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-02-05 05:38pm

Fringe candidates challening a sitting President aren't particularly uncommon. There are several insignificant pols challenging Bush right now, in fact, but there's no realistic possibility of them having an effect, so you won't even hear about them because they aren't worth reporting.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2004-02-05 07:16pm

It happened successfuly a few times in the 19th century. The nomination process was much different back then, and the Presidency didn't have the same cult of personality around it that it does today. Several sitting presidents actually lost their renominations. Millard Fillmore comes to mind as one of them.

And how often do you hear the words "Millard Fillmore comes to mind"?

EDIT: It should be noted in President Fillmore's case, his party was in the process of disintegrating over the slavery issue, so he might not be a good representative.