Shribman includes in this category the last two presidents, as well as JFK and Jimmy Carter. I believe Bill Clinton also belongs in this group, but apparently Shribman does not agree. In all these cases a relative nobody became a somebody as a result of winning the nomination, and went on to win the presidency.
He has done an interesting piece of analysis. The point of the analysis is that the relative obscurity of the potential Republican candidates is not a crippling defect, he concludes:
The person who knows that better than anyone on Earth is ... Barack Obama.
