(CNN) With the 2020 presidential election less than a week away, the prospect once more looms of a challenger unseating an entrenched incumbent president. Besides weathering touch economic times, each of these three failed incumbents demonstrated a fatal character flaw. But when such crises occur during a sitting president's reelection campaign, voters have historically turned him out in favor of a challenger offering a new direction for the nation. In short, incumbents fail when they cannot convince the American people to stay the course. Taken together, these embattled incumbents still provide a recipe for electoral disaster in American politics -- let's explore each in greater detail.

Source: The Nation October 29, 2020 19:06 UTC