Count on this campaign promise
His voice was an octave too high and he was terrible at giving speeches. His entry into local and national politics was tinged with a political scandal that tarnished his reputation for decades. Some never forgave him for his early association with gangsters.
He was an underdog in every election he faced.
Newspapers and national news magazines openly ridiculed him when a contested Democratic National Convention made him its nominee for vice president. So unexpected was his entry into the president's inner circle, the president himself admittedly knew almost nothing about him.
Sure enough, he served as vice president for only 82 days.
But when President Franklin Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, Harry Truman was suddenly America's 33rd president.
Though he had barely been briefed on the military situation and he claimed to know nothing of the nearly-ready atomic bomb, a man "unqualified" for the office was suddenly promoted to the world's most important job.
In his first six months, President Truman announced the Germans' surrender, penned the note that ushered in the age of nuclear warfare and signed the charter that ratified the United Nations. In the months that followed, he oversaw a transition of our post-war national economy, and became an unquestioned leader in a world that desperately needed his plain-spoken guidance.
History calls Harry Truman one of America's greatest presidents. But in the beginning, millions of Americans believed putting the senator from Missouri into such a position would be an unqualified disaster. The very life of the country was at risk, and almost no one believed Harry Truman was the right man for the job!
Surely Truman would have never survived a regular election season for the country's highest office. Had we put him in a lineup with Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, the unknown vice president would have been eliminated somewhere around Iowa.
Even so, less than four years after he inherited an office he didn't expect or desire, Truman did win an election on his own merits. He probably could have won the office again had he not decided to retire, reputation fully intact.
From my vantage point, Truman's role in the nearly miraculous creation of the State of Israel was evidence of one more factor: No matter who the president is, God is in control.
The Bible had long promised the re-gathering of Israel in the land of the Bible, and Harry Truman's unlikely rise to power was part of the way God arranged for those events to happen in 1948.
World leaders come and go in every generation. Call them pharaohs, kings or dictators. Let them assume power by birthright, military force or an electoral process.
No matter who's in charge, God's in control.
Read any part of the Bible you like. In different generations, the attacks came from Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece and Rome. Many times, enemy rulers won their victories and subjected God's people to unspeakable atrocities.
But God was always in control.
In different eras, Hezekiah was encircled like a trapped bird, Daniel was thrown to the lions and Esther was hiding her Jewish identity as if her life depended upon it. And yet in every case, God was in control.
Herod the Great was the most feared and most powerful man in Israel for a generation. Even so, he is remembered today only because of the baby born within walking distance of his largest palace. Powerful Pilate? We would have never heard of him, either, had it not been for his role in the crucifixion of Jesus.
National and world leaders can seem invincible. And yet God handles the heart of a king, says Proverbs 21:1, as if he were directing a stream of water.
Somehow it's easy to look back 2,000 years and agree that God was in control even when it didn't appear to be the case. It's not so easy if you're trying to live through the 2016 presidential election.
Listening to news commentators, talk-show programs and the politicians themselves can leave you thinking our next president will be an unmitigated, unqualified disaster, whichever one of them happens to survive the tongue lashings.
If that's the case, maybe you're ready to hear another message. No matter who gets elected this year, God is still in control. Even if you don't like any of the candidates running for president, God is still in control!
We'll only know how qualified a man or woman really is for such high office after he or she has had a chance to serve for a while. We have survived 44 presidents so far, and it's very likely we'll survive the 45th.
Are you a person of faith? Then take a deep breath and believe the Bible's simplest message: God is in control.
Andy Cook lives in Peach County and is the founder of Experience Israel Now.
This story was originally published April 15, 2016 at 9:45 PM with the headline "Count on this campaign promise ."