Eisenhower advises you to avoid a debate with Kennedy, and you accept that advice. Voters are a little upset that you won't appear, but it could always be worse... Hero with Bad Publicity: Several, depending on your view. But perhaps one of the most notable is Barry Goldwater. While Goldwater is a right-wing conservative hardliner and a hawk among Republicans with all the accompanying negative baggage that entails, he is personally opposed to segregation and racism (to the point of voting for most civil rights laws), is personal friends with civil rights champions and liberal stalwarts like JFK, and in terms of personal integrity and life is almost beyond reproach. Which makes things difficult when so much of the base he relies on for electoral performance includes Dixiecrats, fervent segregationists, outright racists, conspiracy nutjobs, and the Ku Klux Klan. The disconnect is one of his major weaknesses and something his opponents (especially LBJ in the historical 1964 election) capitalize on.

McCain VP election scenario: https://www.reddit.com/r/thecampaigntrail/comments/p2zvkg/2000_bushmccain_mode/ George Wallace can pull off a variation of this in multiple mods, usually tanking his campaign, but in the 1972 mod where he wins the primary, Wallace can totally condemn his old stances on race and go on to defeat Nixon in a massive upset, even being described in the ending as "the left's tentative champion". Florence's map and "vote" mechanics play up the infamous Medici family as your main adversaries, but they prove to be more Disk-One Final Boss material due to Lorenzo The Magnificent dying and being replaced by his failure of a son Piero. In contrast, Pope Alexander VI aka Rodrigo Borgia is the spiritual antithesis (and potentially other side of the coin} to Savonarola and remains your most dangerous and persistent threat. Fittingly enough, it's Alexander VI and the Borgias who topple Savonarola's new republic in some of the bad endings instead of the Medicis.Reuther VP election scenario: https://www.reddit.com/r/thecampaigntrail/comments/p2j1hx/kennedyreuther_1960_vp_mod/

Claire McCaskill VP election scenario: https://www.reddit.com/r/thecampaigntrail/comments/nq8t8s/claire_mccaskill_vp_mod_2016/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Ford performed well, except for an unfortunate gaffe about the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, as the election gets closer, the economy is improving and voters are giving things a closer look... WII 2020 election scenario: https://www.reddit.com/r/thecampaigntrail/comments/pctpaw/wii_2020_mod/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf Played for Laughs in Sumner '68, where it turns out that a time-displaced Charles Sumner's opponent, George Wallace, was actually possessed by Andrew Johnson, who is trying to destroy America from beyond the grave. FDR election scenario: https://www.reddit.com/r/thecampaigntrail/comments/othuhk/1932_modded_scenario_v20_playable_fdr/ The Computer Is a Lying Bastard: The polls do not always form a reliable picture of your actual standing, such as that in 2016 and 2020, they will consistently overestimate the standing of the Democratic candidate by several percentage points. This however is Truth in Television as Donald Trump significantly overperformed his poll results in both elections. Likewise, several decisions that are ultimately optimal will be treated as gaffes or worse by your advisors.