Who Is The Most Unlikely Person To Become President?

Basically what the title says,but in order to put a scoope on things, lets say "By the start of the election year."

Meaning, conditions at birth and their earlier life aren't important, I'm more interested in were they are at the start of the elction year.

ic: Was Jimmy Carter the most unlikely person to be elected president in 1976?
 
Bill Clinton in '92, Barack Obama in '08, Ike in '52, Wilson in '12. Re Carter: yes, but his team had an excellent primary (if not governing) game.
 
I think the most unpredictable person to become president was Gerald Ford. Yes, from the view point of 1972, Carter was another one difficult to predict. Usually, the front runners (or one front runner) surfaces soon after a given election. But in 1973, neither party had any rising stars so the Ford-Carter match-up was very unlikely.

As for Obama, reporters were muttering "first black president?" soon after he gave the keynote address during the 2004 Democratic convention. As the front runners emerged, most Americans thought on January 1, 2008 that the next president was going to be either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

Now, who was the least likely nominee who did not win? I would say George McGovern in 1972 because it took "dirty tricks" to turn support away from front runner Ed Muskie.
 
Ah yes, those were Karl's salad days. When the worst he did was give false directions to. Democratic fatcats to a fundraising dinner. Their "destination" was an area of the South Side as "hot" as a typical VC ambush.
 
The most unlikely VP was Henry Agard Wallace. In 1932, he was the son of an Agriculture Secretary, a pioneer in hybrid corn, and editor of an agricultural magazine. By 1936, he was only the Agriculture Secretary, and a major speechmaker. Even with his increase in profile, he still wasn't a part of the establishment.
 
Harding was a first-term Senator who was virtually unknown outside his home state until he won the nomination on the tenth ballot at the convention. The eighth ballot was the first time he was as high as third place, after it became clear than none of the three serious candidates (Wood, Lowden, and Johnson) could get a majority.

Garfield was a Senator-elect who had yet to take his seat. He wasn't even a candidate until the 35th ballot of the convention.

The most unlikely Vice President was probably William Wheeler (Hayes's VP), whose name was put forward for the nomination literally as a joke:
The convention was recessed for dinner, and as a sop to Roscoe Conkling, the party bosses announced that they would let the New York delegation pick the candidate for Vice President. So some of the delegation were discussing the matter and they were stymied. They couldn't think of anyone who they would want to stick with the position. Then one of them began to giggle. "What about Wheeler?" he chuckled. Soon everyone was having a hearty laugh, including Wheeler, and the next morning he was, much to everyone's surprise, nominated by acclamation.[4] He won the nomination with 366 votes to the 89 for his nearest rival Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, who later served on the Electoral Commission.
 
Andrew Johnson was only run to get votes from War Democrats. No one would have left a Southerner in charge of Reconstruction. :eek:
 
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