John Kerry

As recently as the American boyhoods of John Kerry, John McCain and George W. Bush, it was nearly impossible to think of becoming president without going through the ritual of combat.

World War II vets threw down a gauntlet that members of the succeeding generation couldn't hope to wield unless they donned uniforms and picked up rifles. But the motif of warrior as leader goes back most vividly and foundationally to Washington.

The general on horseback myth worked so well and the country's early talent pool tested in war went so deep, few men thereafter could assume the chair of presidential power without showing battle stripes. From the country's founding all the way up to 1908, only the elections of 1800 (Adams v. Jefferson), 1844 (Polk v. Clay) and 1861 (Lincoln v. Douglas) failed to feature war hero candidacies.

Mulling a possible GOP primary challenge to Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen in district 11 Peter Cavicchia II acknowledged today that he gave $1,000 to John Kerry’s campaign in 2004, but says he’s contributed more heavily to the Republican National Committee.

The retired U.S. Secret Service agent says he also ended up voting a second time for George W. Bush in 2004, not Kerry.

John Graham, co-chair of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s finance committee in New Jersey, recalls the moment he received that phone call from John Kerry on Election Day in 2004.

John F. X. Graham and former Rep. Herbert Klein, at a Clinton finance committee meeting at Pal's Cabin in West Orange Tuesday nightIt was early evening, and the Massachusetts senator thanked Graham for delivering the state’s 15 electoral votes.

Graham put the phone down thinking he had just been speaking with the next president of the United States.

Then he turned on the television in bed, and watched Kerry lose the election.

The last time Graham spoke to Kerry, he told him he wouldn’t be raising money for him this year -- or next. Kerry was mortified, said Graham, but the candidate’s inability to secure the win sent the Democratic Party fund-raiser in search of someone else. He swears he gave all of the prospects a thorough review: Barack Obama, John Edwards, others who have already dropped out of the presidential race, including Mark Warner and Evan Bayh.

And Hillary Clinton.