Americans still believe that almost anyone can be president

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I know what you're thinking. You're looking at some of the names of the people seeking the Republican nomination to be president of the United States and you're asking: Who are these people? What possible reason could they have for running to be the leader of the Free World?

The answer to the first question is easy. Most of the candidates (Donald Trump excepted) are accomplished Americans. One of them (Ben Carson) was a gifted neurosurgeon, another (Carly Fiorina) a high-flying Silicon Valley executive. Three are former governors of important political states (Jeb Bush of Florida, George Pataki of New York, and Rick Perry of Texas) and one (Mike Huckabee of Arkansas) is a former governor of state that provided two-term president Bill Clinton.

And though only three sitting senators have ever been elected directly to the White House – one of them lives there right now – several sitting senators are competing for the GOP nomination (Ted Cruz of Texas, Marco Rubio of Florida, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Rand Paul of Kentucky). Governors have made up four of the last six presidents, so there's a natural attraction for current state chief executives (John Kasich of Ohio, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, and Chris Christie of New Jersey).

Besides, there is no sure path to the presidency, and several successful candidates have followed roads not taken. Almost none of the candidates listed above is as little known as former governor Jimmy Carter was at this precise time in the 1976 political cycle. Mr. Carter, who became president in 1977, drew an average 1 per cent in national polls and, had the current rules been in place, would have been ineligible for the initial televised presidential debates.

Warning: The experts have been wrong before – very wrong. By far the leading American commentator on political matters in 1932 was Walter Lippmann. His view of the candidacy of governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt of New York: "A pleasant man who, without any important qualifications for the office, would very much like to be president." Almost every one of the Republican candidates, including those registering at about 1 per cent in the current polls, could accurately be described that way – except many of them are more accomplished today than Mr. Roosevelt was then, though hr had served as assistant secretary of the Navy and, almost exclusively because he possessed an evocative political last name, had been the Democratic nominee for vice-president in 1920.

So now to the second question: Why are they doing this?

Because in America people still believe that almost anyone can be president.

In 1820, the wife of James Fenimore Cooper, a gentleman farmer without much ambition and who had been expelled from Yale, tossed aside the novel she was reading and told her husband he could write a better book than the one she had been reading. The result was three dozen novels, including The Deerslayer and Last of the Mohicans, and another dozen non-fiction works.

So think of some of these candidacies as part of a condition we might call the Deerslayer Syndrome. Because similar spousal conversations have occurred in Republican political households across the nation, especially because Barack Obama is regarded in those circles as a failed president. Mr. Obama, in fact, was elected to the presidency only four years after he left the Illinois state senate.

The message: Anyone can do this, and lightning might strike.

But if it doesn't strike, or if it strikes someone else, a presidential campaign can still provide benefits.

One is a successful speaking, broadcasting or writing career afterward. A current contender, Mr. Huckabee, earned considerable money off the attention he won running for president in 2008. Former Republican Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania did much the same after winning 11 political contests in the last presidential election.

One benefit is a cabinet position. George Romney, father of Mitt Romney, didn't get very far in the 1968 Republican race but ended up as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in Richard Nixon's administration. Jack F. Kemp didn't defeat George H.W. Bush in 1988, but he ended up in Mr. Bush's cabinet, also as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Bruce Babbitt didn't come close to winning the 1988 Democratic nomination but once a Democrat was elected president he was appointed Secretary of the Interior. Hillary Rodham Clinton lost the 2008 Democratic nomination to Mr. Obama, but when the latter became president, he appointed his onetime rival as secretary of state.

One benefit is another presidential campaign. Mr. Nixon, Hubert H. Humphrey, George H.W. Bush, Robert J. Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney all ran unsuccessful campaigns and then won nominations later, giving them a second try. Both Mr. Bush and Mr. Nixon, who was actually the GOP nominee in 1960, won the White House the second time around, though second tries did not work for 1944 GOP nominee Thomas Dewey or for 1952 Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson. Ronald Reagan won the Republican nomination, and the White House, the third time around. There's nothing like a presidential campaign to earn another presidential campaign.

And one benefit is the vice-presidency. Lyndon B. Johnson, Mr. Humphrey, George H.W. Bush, and Mr. Gore all were elected to the vice-presidency after unsuccessful tries at the presidential nomination. Both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Bush eventually became president, and Mr. Gore came very close, winning the popular vote in 2000 but losing the Electoral College.

The F. Scott Fitzgerald aphorism that there are no second acts in American lives does not apply to presidential politics. Sometimes there are even second campaigns, and from time to time – in the cases of Mr. Nixon and Mr. Reagan especially – there are even second terms. So some of these candidates aren't really running for president. They're running for the future.