Trail To The Chief: How To Become A 2016 Contender

The patron saint of one-percenters -- candidates who start out with 1 percent of support but stick it out -- is Jimmy Carter, who won the White House by leveraging disgust at the sinkhole Washington had become under Richard Nixon. Carter was governor of Georgia, but, more importantly, he was a peanut farmer, former Navy engineer and a devout, abstemious Southern Baptist. He had a sunny smile, exuded innocent incorruptibility, and launched himself by becoming the first candidate to take the Iowa caucus seriously as a way to get national attention. Yes -- Carter gave us Iowa.

So far in modern times, it’s been the Democrats who, because of arcane, porous rules -- and because they are Democrats -- have produced most of these kinds of candidacies: Howard Dean, George McGovern, Jesse Jackson, Gary Hart, John Edwards, to name but a few. Recently the GOP, too, has been getting into the obscurity business with candidates like Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee. Now the whole “royal succession” habit of the GOP is under assault, as Jeb Bush is finding. And a whole new crop of one-percenters and one-percent-wannabes, including Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina and Mike Huckabee 2.0, are looking to get in the game.

For all of these wannabes, here is the official, time-tested guide to becoming a contender -- and maybe even winning the whole thing.

Candidate Photos: Getty, Associated Press