Why do only rich people get to run for President? . . .There is no way that Lincoln could ever become a nominee in this current world.
It's only after a person acquires money, position, or some sort of reknown that he or she starts thinking, "Hell, I could be president!" It takes a hell of an ego to think you know how to govern a country and an even bigger one to think you'd be better at it than anyone else. A regular working man is too busy putting food on the table and a roof over his family's head, keeping the kids in shoes and school clothes and finding some way to get them through braces and summer camp and the senior prom and their first years of college. But then who would you rather vote for--someone who can run a multimillion dollar company or your next-door neighbor who is deeper in debt than you and keeps borrowing your mower because he can't fix his own?
As for Lincoln, people have always underestimated him because of that born in a log cabin with a dirt floor beginning. If you read your history, you'll find Lincoln was one of the most astute politicians ever. And he also benefitted from several political occurrances and mistakes at that particular time. His earlier debates with Douglas over the issues of union vs. slavery showed the public that he was as good or better speaker as one of the greatest political debaters of that time, and it put him on the right side of a growing issue for preventing the spread of slavery. Lincoln lost that election but he made a national name for himself (and won the political support of the biggest daily newspaper in Chicago, Ill.) at just the moment his Whig political party was breaking up because the issue of containing slavery was splitting the northern part of that party from the southern part. This gave birth for a short period to the Know-Nothing party, which began as a secret organization opposed to immigrants from Ireland, Italy and Eastern Europe who were mostly Catholic. Several ex-Whigs not comfortable with the Democratic party tried to make do as Know-Nothings, but that party couldn't attract voters in the Southwest, Maryland, or the large German cities in the Midwest. But about that time, the Republican party came into being. It didn't make much of a showing with its first presidential campaign with Fremont, an Army officer famous as a western explorer as its candidate. But in the 1860 election, it was stronger and better organized especially in the more numerous states above the Masion-Dixon Line. However, Republicans couldn't even get on the ballot in 11-13 southern states--they were doing well just to survive without being lynched. So the Democratic party had a big advantage going into that election. Earlier, however, Douglas foolishly reopened the Missouri comprimise for debate, which alienated many Democrats. When he was nominated at the regular Democratic convention in 1860, several southern states walked out and had their own convention in which they nominated Breakenridge, who was a strong supporter of southern issues of states' rights and pro-slavery. With the party split, another group of democrats tried to come up with a third compromise candidate. So by election day, the Democratic party is deeply divided into 3 camps that effectively cancel out each other's vote and Lincoln, running with strong support of his party but in only a smaller group of northern and western states, wins a plurality, outpolling each of the three Democrat candidates individually although the total Democratic vote surpassed the total Republican vote. His reelection was later in doubt, however, as many in the North tired of the war and the northern Democratic party came up with a "peace candidate," McClellan, a popular US general from whom Lincoln had taken command of the US army when he proved unwilling to fight aggressively. But there was a huge shift in Lincoln's popularity when Sherman took Atlanta just days before election day --plus the fact that the Republican party made damn sure that Republican ballots were readily available to Union soldiers who could vote while in the field. Back then, each political party was in charge of getting its ballots into the hands of voters. Like I said, Lincoln was a very astute politician.
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