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ANALYSIS: The American public may not know who wins the presidential election on November 3 or November 4 or even November 5. But, at some point, we will know if Republican Donald Trump is chosen for a second term or if Democrat Joe Biden will be chosen. next president.
For the winner of the election, the moment of victory brings unbridled cheer and cheer, applause, laughter, hugs and champagne to celebrate the greatest prize in politics.
This is not so for the loser, who must ultimately accept responsibility for the defeat.
In my book, “The Art of Political Humiliation,” I tell the story of Thomas Dewey, the Republican presidential candidate in 1948, who was highly favored to win the election, only to lose to Harry S. Truman, the incumbent.
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On election night, according to one story, Dewey, the governor of New York, asked his wife, “How will it feel to sleep with the president of the United States?”
“A great honor,” replied his wife, “and frankly, honey, I’m looking forward to it.”
AP PHOTOS
The American public may not know who wins the presidential election on November 3 or November 4 or even November 5. But, at some point, we will know if Republican Donald Trump is elected to a second term or if Democrat Joe Biden will be chosen. next president.
But Truman won the election. The next day at breakfast, the story goes, Dewey’s wife said, “Tell me, Tom, am I going to the White House or is Harry coming here tonight?”
A disappointing disappointment
Losing the presidency is a crushing defeat. Incalculable hours of speeches, campaigns and fundraising failed. The candidate feels that he has disappointed the millions of people who believed in them, who contributed to the campaign, who voted for them and who thought they were going to win.
The pain associated with losing the presidential election persists for a long time. A dozen years after George McGovern lost the 1972 presidential election in a landslide to Richard Nixon, he was asked how long it had taken to recover. “I’ll let you know when I get there,” McGovern said.
After losing the 2008 presidential election, John McCain said he slept like a baby: “Sleep two hours, wake up and cry,” he said, adding, “sleep two hours, wake up and cry.”
In 2016, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton woke up on Election Day in most polls and thought she would become the first female president. By the end of the day, those hopes were dashed, and early the next morning, when he called his opponent Donald Trump to concede, those hopes were completely gone.
“This is not the result we wanted or worked so hard for,” Clinton told supporters. “I know how disappointed you are because I’m sorry too … This is painful and will be for a long time.”
Win McNamee
After losing the 2008 presidential election, John McCain said he slept like a baby: “Sleep two hours, wake up and cry,” he said, adding, “sleep two hours, wake up and cry.”
Concessions are tough
When a person has been so committed to running for president for so long, it’s not easy to let go. In the early hours of the morning of the 2000 election night, then-Vice President Al Gore granted in a call to his Republican opponent, George W Bush, and then retracted the concession on another call when the results in the decisive Florida state seemed uncertain. Thirty-six days passed before the US Supreme Court confirmed Bush’s victory.
In her 2017 book, titled “What Happened,” the title itself is a statement of disbelief, Hillary Clinton recalled calling on Donald Trump to grant the election. She said she offered to help him in any way she could. “It was all perfectly nice and strangely ordinary, like calling a neighbor to say you can’t come to their barbecue,” he wrote. “It was thankfully short… he was numb. It was all so shocking. “
The 1960 presidential election between Democrat John F Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, the Republican vice president, remains one of the closest in history. Nixon said US President Dwight Eisenhower advised him to challenge the results because of the Democrats’ cheating, but he refused, he said, because it would cause a “constitutional crisis” and “tear the country apart.” This, he added, would result in him being labeled a “sore loser” and jeopardize any chance of him running again for president.
When Nixon ran for president in 1968, he was elected and then reelected in 1972, before resigning in disgrace in 1974. Nixon was the last person to win his party’s nomination after previously losing a presidential election.
After the loss
But if there is little hope for a new attempt at the presidency, the losing candidates have found second acts in American politics.
US President Jimmy Carter, who was defeated by Ronald Reagan when he sought re-election in 1980, became an international human rights activist and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Gore became an environmentalist and shared the Nobel Prize for La Paz 2007 and the 2007 Academy Award for best documentary for a pioneering examination of climate change.
John Kerry, who lost to George W. Bush in 2004, became secretary of state in the Barack Obama administration. John McCain, who lost to Obama in 2008, remained in the United States Senate. Mitt Romney, who lost to Obama in 2012, now serves in the United States Senate.
Adam Berry
Former United States Secretary of State John Kerry speaks at the Henry A Kissinger Award ceremony in Berlin, Germany.
The transfer of power
Losing is difficult, but losing as the starter, as Carter and George HW Bush did, is probably more difficult. But Carter and Bush understood the importance of the peaceful transition of power.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on whether he will accept the election results and peacefully hand over power if he loses to Biden. This could well result in the constitutional crisis that Nixon referred to.
In early 2020, when the Democratic primary was still underway, Trump again expressed his unwillingness to vacate the White House, prompting a retort from Pete Buttigieg, who ultimately lost the Democratic nomination to Biden. Buttigieg said he had an idea to handle Trump and joked: “If he doesn’t go, I guess if he’s willing to do the housework, we can figure something out.” 
Chris Lamb is a professor of journalism at IUPUI
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
