could not get elected dogcatcher

Dogcatchers are virtually never elected to their posts; the phrase is hyperbole, using dogcatcher to indicate the most lowly conceivable office.[1]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəd ˌnɒt ɡɛt ɪˌlɛktɪd ˈdɒɡkæt͡ʃə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /kəd ˌnɑt ɡɛt əˌlɛktɪd ˈdɔɡˌkæt͡ʃəɹ/, /-iˌlɛktɪd-/

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• Hyphenation: could not get elect‧ed dog‧catch‧er

could not get elected dogcatcher

1. (idiomatic, chiefly US, politics, hyperbolic) Said of someone, particularly a politician, who is extremely unpopular. [from late 19th c.]
   • 1889 February 18, Chicago Herald, quotee, “Unpopular with rascals”, in The Courier-Journal, volume LXXIV, number 7,355 (New Series), Louisville, Ky.: Louisville Courier-Journal Print. Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4, column 6:

     An insolent Republican newspaper asserts that Mr. Cleveland [i.e., Grover Cleveland] is so unpopular in Washington that he could not be elected dog catcher for the district. This may be true, yet Mr. Cleveland has caught a great many dogs in his day—stealing. His success in that line would naturally make him unpopular with the claims agents and other parasites that throng the capital.

   • 1918 October 15, “The City Manager Plan. [Condenst Paragrafs.]”, in J. W. Scroogs, editor, University of Oklahoma Bulletin (New Series; no. 156; University Extension Series; no. 43), Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma, →OCLC, page 60:

     It is a well known fact that the average American town will not elect well educated men to municipal offices if they can help it. A man who wears kid gloves and a plug hat couldn't be elected dog catcher in any town in Oklahoma. That is why the affirmative wish the city manager to be elected by a commission.

   • 2006 October, credited to Robert Ludlum, chapter 15, in The Bancroft Strategy, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 264:

     Men like him couldn't get elected dogcatcher. He was a natural lieutenant, not a leader, and it was a fact he accepted with neither bitterness nor regret.

     The title page of the work states: “Since his death [in 2001] the Estate of Robert Ludlum has worked with a carefully selected author and editor to prepare and edit this work for publication.”

   • 2010 September 12, Philip Eliot, “GOP Tries to Take Out Tea Party-backed Candidate”, in Yahoo! News‎, archived from the original on 2010-09-22:

     "She's [Christine O'Donnell's] not a viable candidate for any office in the state of Delaware," said the state party chairman, Tom Ross, who is backing [Mike] Castle. "She could not be elected dog catcher."

   • 2017 October 25, John L. Micek, “Trump just keeps digging deeper and deeper”, in The Courier-Journal‎, Louisville, Ky.: Gannett, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     [Donald] Trump, who has a glancing relationship with the truth and speaks English only as a second language, has hurled his insults at [Bob] Corker (whom he said couldn't get elected dog-catcher in his home state) and at [John] McCain — even as he journeyed to Capitol Hill to try to build support for tax reform.

Also appears in variant forms such as could not be elected dogcatcher and couldn’t get elected dogcatcher.

• unelectable

• run like a dry creek