Ahead of the 2012 presidential election, Politico debuted its own simulated presidential primary — an online survey that asked readers to nominate “independent presidential candidates” in advance of the presidential contest. “The public has had it with Washington and conventional politics,” then–executive editor Jim VandeHei and chief White House correspondent Mike Allen proclaimed, adding that Americans had “lost trust and respect in the conventional governing class,” citing “mounting evidence” that voters didn’t see President Obama or any of the Republican contenders as attractive choices.

From this somewhat provocative premise, the editors would go on to nominate retired general David Petraeus, Cisco CEO John Chambers, former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles, and former US secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton as examples of “independent” figures who might be able to break Washington’s bipartisan political gridlock.

Absurd on its face, this episode was a caricature of one of the most ridiculous leitmotifs in American politics: namely, that of the centrist maverick who is going to shake things up in DC with an agenda virtually indistinguishable from the one its governing class already favors.