If there are parallels with the present, they bode ill for Obama: in both cases, voters went for the non-incumbent alternative.
First, entrench a two-party dichotomy; second, gerrymander districts into tortuous shapes; third, cultivate an electorate so polarized that no matter how much voters dislike their incumbent, they hate the alternative worse; fourth, profit!
Last summer Alltel entered its second competitive local market, Charlotte, N.C., as an alternative to incumbent BellSouth Corp. Alltel plans to offer competing local service in ten more cities this year, keeping startup costs low by leasing local and long distance lines from other operators.
Dissident and opposition movements on the island could themselves remain disorganized and fragmented, never forming a coherent political alternative to incumbent power.
But with so many major countries on board, the AIIB poses a credible alternative to incumbent development banking systems like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and others that have been in place, largely unchallenged, for 70 years.
In a world where stock video footage and production is typically expensive to license and is bound by restrictive licenses, VideoBlocks wants to provide a low-cost alternative to incumbents like Getty Images.
In 2009 Ghani ran for president, presenting himself as a modern technocratic alternative to the incumbent Karzai.
It's also incumbent on us to find alternative space in the five boroughs for corporations wanting to decentralize".
For his part, Mr Herzog has tried to come across as a credible alternative to the incumbent, whose hawkish, bellicose style is light on diplomatic niceties.
Livingstone is already in his 60s, making it still harder for him to look like a fresh and dynamic alternative to the incumbent.
Newark provides the biggest test yet for this approach - can a divisive party like Ukip replicate the Lib Dems' ability to unify disparate pockets of local disaffection by presenting themselves as the only credible alternative to the incumbent?
