Reply #5: i could get it..

[dbmk]

.. if the party had two candidates they were completely sure could win the GE - and overall were similar in the direction and style. And one of them would be too old by the end of two terms, but not too old now. Then there would be some strategy in letting the youngest one know that he perhaps should wait for the good of the party.

But noone really foresaw that Obama had what it took. And the demeanor of the two candidates is so many miles apart that the example does not apply here anyway.

And as gc said, it still would be a funny way of selecting a president.