This election campaign brings to mind a haberdasher. A guy going broke selling men’s clothing. It brings to mind aristocrats. And army generals, an engineer and farmers. And don’t forget professors.

If you think about our presidents as young men, these are the occupations that must come up. This is the work they performed. Before they took on the job of running a country. The job in which they shaped destinies of billions of people around the world.

Truman knew farming. He knew men’s clothing. He felt the pains of struggling in a business until he and the business were broke. He suffered a mother-in-law who voted for the other candidate.

In the White House he made some of the most momentous decisions in the history of humanity. His was an extra-ordinary presidency. In many ways he was extra-ordinary. And in many ways, ordinary. An ordinary guy. He played poker in the White House.

At one point an old pal from his haberdasher days stopped by. To urge him to have this country recognize Israel at its birth. One ordinary guy, tears streaming down his cheeks, begging another ordinary guy. Begging him to make such a huge and controversial decision.

Such things happen here. I met a man who was among the few allowed to visit Reagan in hospital after he was shot. He was an old pal of the President’s. A regular guy, who made furniture. He had been one of the Midwest small-town guys who raised money to buy young Reagan a wardrobe. Back when he decided to take his chances in Hollywood.

Yes, so many of our presidents are politicians from their toe-nails to the hair on their head. By the time they reach the White House they are. But so many of them spent years as ordinary folks.