This is national presidential convention season for the two major parties, which makes it the perfect time to review the mistakes of past campaigns and candidates.

As we watched the Biden-Harris reelection campaign self-destruct in real time, we wondered what other presidential campaigns in recent history turned out to be flops for one reason or another.

Here are eight presidential campaign mistakes, which cost them an election.

They’re evenly divided — four Republicans and four Democrats.

Richard Nixon (1960 general election):

The Nixon-Kennedy debate was the first televised presidential debate in American history. At the time Nixon was vice president to Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Kennedy was a senator representing Massachusetts.

Both were former naval officers who served in World War II.

Each candidate was offered makeup prior to the debate.

Kennedy accepted; Nixon declined, believing it was unmanly.

Viewers saw Kennedy as a tanned, youthful, vibrant candidate.

They saw Nixon as pale, haggard, and sweating, with a 5 o’clock shadow.

Viewers declared Kennedy the winner of that debate, while radio listeners believed Nixon had won handily.

But it was one blunder costing Nixon the election.

Gerald Ford (1976 general election):

To be fair, Ford entered the 1976 race with both hands tied behind his back.

Although he was a sitting president, he ascended to that office after President Nixon resigned under a cloud of suspicion because of the Watergate scandal.

At that time Ford did the right thing by pardoning his predecessor. Although it was the honorable thing to do, it enraged voters calling for their “pound of flesh.”

But any chance Ford had was lost at the first debate with former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter, when Ford claimed that “There is no Soviet dominance of Eastern Europe.”

The Washington Post reported afterwards that “the press pounced on this passage of the debate and wrote of little else for days afterward, so much so that a public initially convinced that Ford had won the debate soon turned overwhelmingly against him.”

Gary Hart (1988 Democratic primary):

Sen. Gary Hart was the frontrunner to become the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee when rumors began circulating that he was having an affair. The Colorado Democrat denied the rumors and challenged the press, “Follow me around,” adding, “It will be boring.”

The reporters took him up on the challenge, and it wasn’t all that boring after all.

The Miami Herald found a woman Hart was having an affair with named Donna Rice.

The National Enquirer followed up with photos of a yacht they used to carry on their affair. It was named, appropriately enough, “Monkey Business.”

Lesson: If you’re gonna run for political office, don’t engage in any monkey business.

Michael Dukakis (1988 general election):

The former Massachusetts governor had a double-digit lead after the Democratic convention, and at one point during the campaign Dukakis enjoyed a 17% lead advantage over his Republican rival, then-Vice President George H.W. Bush.

But during the second Bush-Dukakis debate he was asked if he would support the death penalty if someone had raped and murdered his wife, Kitty.

Instead of saying “hell yes,” he equivocated and gave a response lacking in any emotion.

His polls fell overnight, and perhaps in an effort to redeem himself and portray a tough-guy image, he donned a helmet and took a ride in a tank.

But it had the opposite effect.

The helmet appeared too large, so instead of appearing presidential and tough on defense, Dukakis looked like a little boy “playing Army” to some, and like Mad magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman to others.

The image became a GOP political ad overnight and Bush won 40 states, taking home 426 electoral votes to Dukakis’ 111.

Howard Dean (2004 Democratic primary):

Sometimes just little things can spell doom to a campaign.

In former three-term Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s case it was a little but loud thing.

He was a Democratic frontrunner at a campaign event following the Iowa caucus, in which he placed third.

At the close of his remarks he ticked off the contests yet to come, concluding with a shout of ” . . . and then we’re going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House!” and let out a loud rebel scream.

Although no one at the event took notice of it, voters watching at home scratched their heads and thought, “What the hell was that?”

It became the scream heard ‘round the world, the election story of the night, and the end to his campaign.

Rick Perry (2012 GOP primary):

Like Howard Dean and Michael Dukakis, Perry was a popular state governor — of Texas in his case. And because of their executive experience, governors make ideal presidential candidates.

And Perry came to the debate stage with a message that was music to Republicans’ ears — he wanted to reduce the size of the federal government, beginning with eliminating three entire departments.

“And I will tell you, it is three agencies of government when I get there that are gone,” he promised if elected, and then started to list them: “Commerce, Education, and the. . .  what’s the third one there? Let’s see.”

When Mitt Romney suggested the EPA, Perry said, “EPA, there you go, no. . . ” eliciting laughter from the candidates and the audience.

The moderator gave Perry another chance to come up with it, but he couldn’t.

Later on in the debate Perry recalled the third department — Energy.

But that was it for Perry.

Jeb Bush (2016 GOP primary):

Bush had everything going for him.

• He was a popular and successful governor of a major state: Florida.
• He was bilingual, which could have brought Hispanics on board
• Both his brother and his father were former presidents

But his campaign just never caught fire, beginning with his campaign motto: “Jeb Can Fix It.” It sounded like he was a plumber, electrician, or A/C repairman.

Then there was his mother, the popular and outspoken Barbara Bush. When asked if she endorsed Jeb’s candidacy she replied, “We’ve had enough Bushes.”

Then there were his low-key speech and debate performances, prompting then-candidate Donald Trump to dub him “low-energy Jeb.”

When the audience didn’t respond to an applause line at one campaign event, he weakly asked them to “please clap.”

Hillary Clinton (2016 general election):

Hillary was the odds-on favorite to beat Donald Trump and become the first female U.S. president. But it was not to be, and she had only herself to blame.

One major reason was her political ads. Instead of telling the public what she would bring to the table (other than breaking a glass ceiling as the first woman president), she chose to personally attack Trump — her GOP opponent.

Clinton also believed she had the election in the bag — enough to avoid campaigning in Wisconsin and Michigan — and she lost both states to Trump.

Then there was her decision to personally attack her opponent’s supporters as “A Basket of Deplorables,” which she defined as “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic.”

You can’t win elections with negative ads, not campaigning and calling half the country names.

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz’s Reports — More Here.

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