Hello and welcome to Whistle Stop, a podcast of campaign curiosities. I'm John Dickerson of Face the Nation.

A businessman wins his party's nomination by surprise, running on a platform that promises to sweep out the corruption, protect America, and limit overseas engagement.

He promises that because he is not part of the political machine, he can't be bought when he enters the White House.

What year is it?

2016?

No, you wouldn't expect that from a tease with all this theatricality, would you?

No, we're talking about 1940, and the candidate is Wendell Wilkie, Indiana businessman,

newcomer to the GOP, and political neophyte.

I'm in business and proud of it, the 48-year-old Wilkie told a crowd.

Nobody can make me soft-pedal any fact in my business career.

After all, business is our way of life, our achievement, our glory.

It was the only other time in American history that a major political party gave its shimmering hat of leadership to someone whose chief qualification was having been a man

of the corner office, a C and the CEO, and more than an average size cheese.

Present administration has spent $60 billion. The new deal stands for doing what has to be done by spending as much money as possible.

I propose to do it by spending as little as money as possible.

This is one issue in this campaign that I intend to make crystal clear before the conclusion

of the campaign so that everybody in this country may understand the

tremendous waste of their resources of money that have taken place in the last seven and a half

years.

Oh, it's good to be back.

More in a moment after a word from our sponsor.

The Obama administration is in the last six months, and maybe you're wondering what it's

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