The main parallel begins with Zachary Taylor’s converting his fame as a Mexican-American War hero into commandeering the Whig Party — despite boasting about never having voted before.

General Zachary Taylor, a hero of the Mexican War, was an ideal Whig candidate — a military ... the Democrat Lewis Cass and the Free Soil Party candidate Martin Van Buren, Taylor won a narrow ...

Zachary Taylor was the reluctant candidate of the Whig Party, which nominated him purely on his reputation as a hero of the Mexican–American War. He defeated Democrat Lewis Cass. The election was ...

But seasoned war veteran Zachary Taylor emerged from the Mexican War ... Among those were the leadership of the Whig Party, which nominated him as their presidential candidate in 1848.