Some things become obvious............

     Bryan was gracious, even self-mocking, after his third failed run for the White House.  He said he identified with the legendary Texan drunk who tried to get into a bar, and was escorted out.  Trying again, he was hustled out; trying yet again, he was thrown out.  "I guess," said the drunk, brushing dust from his clothes, "they don't want me in there."

-Edmund Morris,  Theodore Rex

Interestingly, William Jennings Bryan ran unsuccessfully against William McKinley in 1896 and 1900.  He then ran against Roosevelt's hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft in 1908.