Going back through the dem primaries, the 1972 primary looks interesting and is probably worth a study. McGovern actually did not win the popular vote by a tiny margin but there was essentially a 4 way split going into the convention. Nixon, who was unpopular, ended up winning re-election under these conditions.
Indeed. A highly unpopular president does not automatically mean that the opposing candidate becomes more popular. That right there would be a lesson that the dems need to think long and hard about and get their fingers out of their collective arses and find a candidate. Yeh, sure, I know all the yaddy yaddy dah polls and pundit commentaries about how any dem can beat Trump. Okay fine, go with that. So far that comes down to just Warren in my mind and no one likes her either. McGovern was never at risk of winning anything, but a little known-little touted fact is that he was a hard core, bonafide, patriotic war hero- having flown many, many dangerous bombing missions over Europe. Naturally, his "expert" advisors made it clear that that should never be mentioned unless it comes up. Don't want to bring any of that pro-american stuff into the campaign, the kiddies from the 60's won't like it even though an entire older generation could relate. You can see similarities to the way that Joe is being handled where he is slowly and painfully being brought to a space that acknowledges that nothing good ever happened in America before AOC's lifetime.
Nixon was not unpopular in 1972.In 1972 Nixon had an approval rating around 60% and a first term average approval rating of 56%.Trump has never touched 50%