What Happens if a President Drops Out Before Nomination? Historical Analysis

Donald Trump would be 78 on Inauguration day 2025. Biden 82! Can history shed light on this unprecedented situation?

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★ NOTE ON SOURCING IN CAPTIONS:
At the end of a sentence with sourcing, something like this will appear:
"The sky is blue. The ocean is blue (17,89)."
In this example, the 1st number represents the source # from the source list in this description. The 2nd number represents the page number, if the source is a book. If the numbers are separated by a semicolon ie (2;3), the numbers represent two different sources.

1. Lyndon B. Johnson Public Approval. The American Presidency Project. UCSB.
2. PBS Thematic Window. The ELECTION OF 1968.
3. “Have Any U.S. Presidents Decided Not to Run…?” Britannica Jeff Wallenfeldt
5. Ballotpedia. Types of delegates
6. Democrats dot org. Delegate Selection Rules For the 2024 Democratic National Convention
7. NYTimes. “Can Democrats Replace Biden?...” Maggie Astor. Feb. 24, 2024
8. “Selecting A President” Britannica
9. Leaderless Government, Woodrow Wilson 1897
10. State of the Union Address: Woodrow Wilson (December 2, 1913)
11. ‘The Ezra Klein Show’. “Here’s How an Open Democratic Convention Would…”
12. Axios. The oldest U.S. presidents during their terms. Sareen Habeshian

0:00-1:12 Intro
1:13-5:23 Quest
5:24-9:54 1968
9:55-12:01 It's the system, man
12:02-14:44 Primary Evolution
14:45-22:16 Democracy & Primaries

Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images.

[iammrbeat]

Well done! I'm so glad you filmed in one of my favorite places. :) Oh, and I think it's long overdue that I make my 2016 presidential election alternate history video.

[robertperez]

I just found your channel and subbed . Grate video . Appreciate the non biased opinions

[adrsilva]

Seriously we Need to Put term Limits and vote and Encourage people who care about us!

[addymant]

4:40 I absolutely love these kinds of conspiracies/superstitions that focus _specifically_ on the president and basically no one else.

The Curse of Tippecanoe is my favorite, and it kinda sucks that it was broken twice in a row by Reagan and Bush Jr. Obviously it's nonsense just like other superstitions, but the coincidences scratch an itch that nothing else does. I'd love to hear more of them.

Alright, there's your engagement, Mr. Fox. Thanks for the excellent video

[SonyaandSidney]

Popular vote would also have caused Trump to lose twice. Any system can have good and bad results.

[zytrik]

There should be a maximum age to serve office, kinda like they do with soldiers.

[RisenChudJr]

Great stuff. This was a question I wonder ponder often

[TheElizondo]

I'd argue that de institutionalization of the primaries has actually made the elections more undemocratic for two reasons: 1) they lead to the nomination of more "extreme" candidates as they cater to the party bases, so at the end the choices are not really the general public's choices, but more importantly 2) Primaries give the main two parties an even greater advantage that what they already would’ve had anyways. It gives these parties a 1 year media coverage advantage that no third party or break-away nomination could even hope for.

[FatherDraven]

To say that we chose who won those primaries when the insiders got to pick who we got to choose from means we didn't actually get to choose.

[americanphilosophy]

See a new video, I must watch immediately

[samwill]

Two terms. Four years. For every elected office in the United States. Period.

[Andre-qoek]

the general principles of democracy are ok if everyone inside of it hold the same world view OR can at least agree on the rules and stick by them.
when FUNDEMENTAL differences start bubbling up... there is a HUGE problem with democracy.
when NEW PLAYERS start playing by DIFFERENT RULES ... there are HUGE problems.
when the player base gets SO HUGE ... the cogs grind, the servers crash.

there are clashing paradigms that need to be resolved among the population but the man-children and backboneless-capitulators in power would rather play power grabs.

[neptun]

Can i have a say in how much I'm governed?

[sparkyfister]

Biden is literally running the nation "Weekend at Bernie's" style.

[TheMysteryDriver]

I still think senators should be chosen by the state legislature. We've seen the absolute morons and grifters we've elected to the Senate.

As for primaries and caucuses I think 2016 is the first time a lot of people saw how undemocratic the system is. People really hadn't paid attention to the process until then.

Personally I think running from the floor is exciting, but that's how we got Truman instead of Wallace whom I think would have made a much better President.

[augustodelerme]

Free palestine! 🇵🇸🇷🇺🇵🇷
Free assange! ✊
Pardon snowden! ✊
Workers of the world unite! ✊
Farmers of the world unite! ✊🚜