People tend to forget how difficult it is to defeat an incumbent President.
Gerald Ford was never elected President (he was appointed VP when Agnew resigned and became POTUS when Nixon resigned). One month after taking office, he alienated much of the country by pardoning Nixon.
Gerald Ford was never elected President (he was appointed VP when Agnew resigned and became POTUS when Nixon resigned). One month after taking office, he alienated much of the country by pardoning Nixon.
For half of his first year in office, the US was in a recession. Then Saigon fell. Then America’s biggest city, New York, almost went bankrupt and Ford initially refused to help. The country was embroiled in bitter, sometimes violent protests over busing. 
Ford had an average Gallup approval rating of 47%. When he ran for a full term in 1976, he made an incredible gaffe during a Presidential debate, saying there was no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe (which there was) and then doubled down on his misstatement.
Complicating matters further, a month before the election, Ford had to sack his Secretary of Agriculture for having made a crude, racist remark against black men.
And despite all of these things, Ford, the only President who was never elected as POTUS or VP, almost won!
And despite all of these things, Ford, the only President who was never elected as POTUS or VP, almost won!
The election of 1976 was one of the closest in US history. And the incumbent President, who got to the Oval Office only because both the President and Vice President had both resigned, and who presided over a lost war, recession, civil strife, STILL almost won.
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