Every presidential election is a search for the cure.
In 1960, the malady was age. Voters still liked Ike, but the great World War II general was 70 and slowing down. The Soviet launch of Sputnik and Castro's take-over in Cuba said the country was, too. In 1976, it was the rot of Watergate. So we picked a guy who taught Sunday school, whose mantra was he'd hardly even been to Washington.