The mythology of the American Dream includes the promise that anyone can become president. That's one of the risks you take, because it allows for the possibility that even a figure as divisive, narcissistic and outrageous as Donald Trump can get the job.
The brash billionaire deal-maker, who feels entitled to say and do what he wants, when he wants, is something of an American caricature.
So too is the outsider, the Rocky Balboa figure, who can defy the odds - and the establishment - to win the top prize.
Trump, the television star businessman with tweeting Tourette's, blended the two and rode into the White House with the promise to 'make America great again'.
That was four years ago. Whether he gets to stay in the Oval Office for a second term is in the balance right now, with the scales seemingly tipped in favour of the Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
Trump was in a similar position against Hillary Clinton this far out from election day in 2016, so anything is possible in "the wicked game", as founding father John Adams described the presidential contest of 1796, between now and November 3. It would seem wishful thinking to count him out on the basis of the opinion polls alone.
From this side of the Atlantic, it does seem strange that Biden isn't further, or even decisively, ahead given Trump's disastrous response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The burning and looting in cities like Portland and the association of such behaviour with the lunatic left may also be suppressing Democratic support.
But what does it say about the state of America and its politics today that Trump and Biden are the best it can come up with?
American companies - Facebook, Apple, Google, Amazon, Netflix, the list goes on - lead the world. Can the same be said for the statesmanship and political nous of the presidential contenders?
Trump's rap sheet is well known, and as incumbent he was always favourite for the Republican nomination. That might not reflect well on the Republican party, though it has does have a certain explicability.
But what of the Democrats? After Hillary Clinton's defeat, they have had four years to plot Trump's downfall.
What does it say about the state of America and its politics today that Trump and Biden are the best it can come up with? American companies - Facebook, Apple, Google, Amazon, Netflix , the list goes on - lead the world. Can the same be said for the statesmanship and political nous of the presidential contenders?
Imagine what skulduggery someone like Dominic Cummings would have got up to with that sort of lead-in time... The Democrats could have identified and promoted a figure with vision (in the mould of, say, Barack Obama) or charisma (Bill Clinton) to pitch against Trump.
But instead, they seem to have concluded that this is the moment in history when what America really needs is the guy who had been trying, and failing, to secure the Democratic nomination since as far back as 1987. Then, Biden was eclipsed by Michael Dukakis.
After that setback Biden considered running again and eventually did so in 2007... only to be overshadowed, once again, by a brighter candidate.
That time it was Obama, and Biden later agreed to become his running mate, going on to be vice-president from 2009 to 2017.
For this campaign, Biden - although a wooden and curiously charisma-free presence - held the powerful advantage of being easily the least obnoxious of the other main Democratic contenders, and he was officially nominated at the party's convention last month.
While no-one was expecting Biden to suddenly channel his inner Cicero as he declaimed from the dais, it wasn't a hugely encouraging sign that being able to read his keynote speech from an autocue seemed to be regarded as a major triumph.
That probably won't matter, of course, because Biden isn't campaigning on his rhetorical flair. Nor does he seem to be campaigning on policies or vision. Instead, his main attribute is that he isn't Donald Trump.
Whether that is enough to carry the vital swing states remains to be seen; Hillary Clinton wasn't Donald Trump either, and it didn't do her much good.
