One of her first school reports described the five-year-old Sarah Macaulay as "highly self-possessed" - probably the pre-eminent qualification for the part.
"The Misses Allen use their cameras in the same spirit with which a painter uses his brushes, and their sense of composition, of the dramatic moment, is as eminent a qualification for their art as his".
That would be fine if the electoral college itself did what Alexander Hamilton wanted: ensure that the presidency would "never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications".
The so-called Hamilton electors cite the founding father's words in Federalist 68, in which he describes the purpose of the electoral college to "afford a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications".
They cite the statement by Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers: "The process of the Electoral College affords a moral certainty, that the office of the President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications".
As written in The Federalist Papers, the College exists such "that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications".
Hamilton argued for the electoral college system in these terms: "The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications".
His qualifications for this pivotal position were eminent.
It feels like a qualification that has had its day – and more eminent people than me, such as Sir Mike Tomlinson and the Institute of Education's assessment expert Tina Isaacs, suggest this.
A 16-team tournament meant that qualification was not the formality it is these days, even for the pre-eminent sides.
