Crossword Genius

President that is backing both sides in election held by group of incompetents (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

eisenhower

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'president' is the definition.
(I know that Eisenhower is a president)

'that is backing both sides in election held by group of incompetents' is the wordplay.
'that is' becomes 'ie' (short for Latin 'id est', 'that is').
'backing' says the letters should be written backwards.
'both sides in' suggests removing the centre (only the side letters remain).
'held by' indicates putting letters inside.
'group of incompetents' becomes 'shower' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'election' with its middle removed is 'en'.
'ie' back-to-front is 'ei'.
'en' inserted into 'shower' is 'senhower'.
'ei'+'senhower'='EISENHOWER'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for eisenhower that I've seen before include "General, President, 'Ike'" , "US president nineteen fifty three to nineteen sixty one" , "US president and general" , "American general" , "1950s president" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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