They were both senators from Arizona, Republican Party nominee Barry Goldwater in 1964 and John McCain in 2008.

Even a cursory look at the dynamics in play between the two races reveals the chance for the Democrats to emulate what President Lyndon Johnson's board of strategy achieved almost a half century ago, when the Democratic incumbent secured an overwhelming popular vote victory of 23 points with an overwhelming 61-38 % landslide.

Johnson later told interviewers that Goldwater lost all opportunity to become a credible candidate when, in his acceptance speech at the party's San Francisco convention, the Arizona solon made a statement that brought him his hottest, most resounding response of the night from his in person audience of zealots, including Ronald Reagan, but left a vast majority of voters cold in November.

Referring to the fact that Democrats were seeking to paint him as a right wing extremist, Goldwater took the bait in a personally harmful way and delivered one of the most memorable lines in convention history: