They were almost Presidents. Instead they became the forgotten few who lost to Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Surprisingly, the runner-ups were overwhelmingly white. Facial hair was common in the 1800's (John C. Breckinridge loved his mustache), but from 1952 onward every loser was clean-shaven. There's also a noticeable regression from candid color portraits, to black and white, to posed photographs, to daguerreotypes, to paintings.
John McCain - 2008
John Kerry - 2004
Al Gore - 2000
Bob Dole - 1996
George H. W. Bush - 1992
Michael Dukakis - 1988
Walter Mondale - 1984
Jimmy Carter - 1980
Gerald Ford - 1976
George McGovern - 1972
Hubert Humphrey - 1968
Barry Goldwater - 1964
Richard Nixon - 1960
Adlai Stevenson - 1952, 1956
Thomas E. Dewey - 1944, 1948
Wendell Willkie - 1940
Alf Landon - 1936
Herbert Hoover - 1932
Al Smith - 1928
John W. Davis - 1924
James M. Cox - 1920
Charles Evans Hughes - 1916
Theodore Roosevelt - 1912
Alton B. Parker - 1904
William Jennings Bryan - 1896, 1900, 1908
Benjamin Harrison - 1892
Grover Cleveland - 1888
James G. Blaine - 1884
Winfield Scott Hancock - 1880
Samuel J. Tilden - 1876
Horace Greeley - 1872
Horatio Seymour - 1868
George B. McClellan - 1864
John C. Breckinridge - 1860
John C. Fremont - 1856
Winfield Scott - 1852, 1880
Lewis Cass - 1848
Martin Van Buren - 1840, 1848
Henry Clay - 1824, 1832, 1844
William Henry Harrison - 1836
John Quincy Adams - 1828
Andrew Jackson - 1824
Rufus King - 1816
DeWitt Clinton - 1800, 1804, 1808
Charles Cotesworth - 1800, 1804, 1808
Aaron Burr - 1796, 1800
Thomas Jefferson - 1796
John Adams - 1789, 1792, 1800
