re: #220 HappyWarrior

They’re all running against Obama. But yeah this is just getting sad.

It’s always easier for the party out of power to run against the termed out incumbent (it especially helps when the incumbent party’s nominee appears to be a “legacy” nominee for the incumbent). Bush ran as much against Clinton as he did Gore in 2000, and Obama ran as much against Bush as he did McCain in 2008.

The termed out incumbent has a record you can run against. The new nominee doesn’t always have that record. Plus, the out of power party is pretty much always running to change something, so they have to contrast their positions and policies with the status quo.