We've seen this before: a young, attractive, and politically inexperienced candidate comes out of nowhere to claim a presidential nomination. Is history repeating itself?
In 1940, one of the most unlikely political ascensions in history occurred when Wendell Wilkie came out of nowhere to claim the Republican nomination and challenge Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the Presidency.
There are major contextual and personal differences, to be sure. But the personality, experience and choices of Wilkie seem eerily reminiscent of Obama.
Others have seen this, such as Alexander Heffner of TIME magazine.
Wilkie was an anti-war candidate like Obama.
Also, like Obama, he came out of nowhere to capture the imagination of the country.
At 48, just two years older than Obama today, he broke upon the national consciousness with an ‘electrifying' appearance on the "Town Hall" radio program.
In 1940, Wilkie (pictured) stumped furiously around the country and caught fire in the popular imagination.
"Wilkie clubs" began to spring up everywhere. Millions signed petitions for him. It was a true phenomenon.
So, what happened to Wilkie, the 1940 boy wonder?
During the campaign Wilkie's inexperience began to show.
He chose as a main theme the lack of preparedness of the military by the administration, perhaps to offset his isolationist reputation as it became more apparent that war was inevitable.
Roosevelt easily outflanked this by expanding contracts and instituting a draft.
Wilkie then tried to capitalize on backlash to the draft, by changing the support he had announced for it to opposition.
The inexperienced Wilkie lost in an electoral landslide!
Why did Wilkie lose when the enthusiasm for him had been so great?
His lack of experience began to dawn on a lot of people. How could he claim he could run things much better than a solid veteran at administering the government?
A footnote:
Wendell Wilkie died of heart failure in 1944 - just four years after his loss to FDR.
A picture of my cave
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