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This thesis explores one aspect of how presidential candidates from the opposition party can be successful in the general election. The project accepts as a given Stephen Skowronek?s notion that American political history can be described as a series of ?regimes? that favor one party over the other. This paper extends that notion to an analysis of presidential elections. If political eras tend to favor presidential candidates from the governing party, how do candidates from the opposition party ? the Zachary Taylors, Grover Clevelands, and Bill Clintons of the world ? get elected? Purist representatives of the opposition party?s anchor faction ? Henry Clay, William Jennings Bryan, Barry Goldwater ? are remarkably unsuccessful in upending the dominant regime, whereas military heroes (Zachary Taylor, Dwight Eisenhower) or relative unknowns (Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson) achieve greater success. This project is an attempt to look more systematically at this dynamic ? to explore whether the question of electability can be applied to the notion of political time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]