Then, in an interview with the New York World, the political novice allowed as how “the office of the President is not such a very difficult one to fill, his duties being mainly to execute the laws of Congress.” He could do that, he said, as faithfully as he had executed the orders of his superiors over a long naval career.

That was it for the admiral’s presidential prospects. The American people instantly saw that he was unequal to the job and turned away from him with quiet finality. No vote was needed, no attack ads necessary to drive home the point. Dewey simply didn’t measure up, and everyone knew it, however fine a man and brilliant an admiral he might have been.

Those were days when the standards of presidential acceptability were high, and that reality was reflected in the men who occupied the office—McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Coolidge, Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower. Now we have Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. No doubt the republic will survive either, but the question is to what extent they will diminish the republic and sap its civic health.

Robert W. Merry is a contributing editor at the National Interest and an author of books on American history and foreign policy.

Image: View of north front of the White House, Washington, DC. Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons/Francisco Diez