There's an old joke that each morning, every U.S. senator looks in the mirror and sees a future president. From the time I moved to Washington, in 1972, through 2012, 46 sitting senators ran for president—publicly declaring their candidacies and/or putting their names on at least one primary or caucus ballot—not to mention 17 other former members of the Senate who also gave it a shot. Obviously some of their candidacies didn't even make it to the Iowa caucuses or to the New Hampshire primary, let alone through to the national convention or the general election. That's what happened in 1976, when Democratic Sens. Birch Bayh (Indiana), Lloyd Bentsen (Texas), Robert Byrd (West Virginia), Frank Church (Idaho), and Scoop Jackson (Washington) all ran, alongside former Sen. Fred Harris (Oklahoma). President Gerald Ford looked exceedingly vulnerable, the blood in the water drawing so many from the Senate to run even though it was a little-known former governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, who went on to win the nomination and unseat Ford. The biggest presidential election campaigns for senators taking the plunge

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