The Fittest Men

Yesterday I read Mill's "The Spirit of the Age" essays, and stumbled upon this jewel of a passage:

In the United States, where those who are called to power, are so by the general voice of the whole people, experience equally testifies to the admirable good sense with which the highest offices have been bestowed. At every election of a President, without exception, the people's choice has fallen on the person whom, as all impartial observers must admit, every circumstance that the people knew, pointed out as the fittest; nor is it possible to name one person pre-eminently qualified for the office, who has not, if he was a candidate, obtained it. In the only two cases in which subsequent experience did not confirm the people's judgment, they corrected the error on the very first lawful opportunity.

What a romantic image of America! For the curious, those who proved "unfit" were John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Among the most interestings facts about that pair, aside from their kinship, is that they both lost their re-election bids to the man they defeated in the first place (Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, respectively). Someone should have told Al Gore.