We have a tradition of generals running for president why no admirals?
Admirals not running for high office is probably a good thing. Look what happened to Jim Stockdale. 
Well, there’s a total of 490 generals serving at any time, and only 162 admirals. Just simple math says that you’re three times more likely to have a general do anything in particular, from taking a dump to running for President.
Probably just a matter of numbers. The Army is the largest branch of the service, and the Army, Air Force, and Marines all combined certainly outnumber the Navy. So you’d expect the majority of candidates to come from one of those three branches, all of which call their top rank “general”, not “admiral”.
EDIT: And there Ravenman goes with numbers and everything.
The word “Admiral” mot likely derives from the Arabic, so they’re all probably a bunch of terrorists anyway. 
ISTM in recent time we have a “tradition” of generals being chattered about for presidential potential (MacArthur, Powell), or even showing up in the exploratory or primary phase (Haig, Clark), but not actually grabbing the nomination — IIRC in the last 100+ years only Eisenhower got elected having made his fame as general.
Notice all these officers were wartime theatre commanders, or former SACEUR or COS or had a history of high-visibility White House or Cabinet posts. So they had a public presence. Today the sitting Administration has quite a number of retired generals in it.
(Gen LeMay and Adm Stockdale ran as VP in doomed 3d Party tickets. )
You had more Generals in the ticket though in the first century of the office, where you’d have many people in politics having served as senior officers in the Revolution, the Indian Wars, Mexican War and Civil War, under the old system where brevet ranks were more common. (the USN hardly had Admirals until after the Civil War, so there was that disadvantage)
More recently in the period after Ike what we did have was a whole bunch of Presidents who were Navy LTs and LCDRs in the 40s: JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Bush 41; and a few nominees from the Vietnam-era Navy (Gore, McCain, Kerry). Might as well ask what makes a tour as a Navy junior officer part of a political career ladder.
Al Gore wasn’t in the Navy.
The Marine Corps is a branch of the Navy.
As of 2017, the USMC has 185,000 active and 38,500 reserve members, and 1,199 aircraft. The US Navy has 324,460 active and 108,270 Ready Reserve members, 279 deployable Battle Force ships, and more than 3,700 operational aircraft.
I can think of only one admiral seriously mentioned as a potential POTUS, and that was a short-lived thing (see the subheading “Politics”): George Dewey - Wikipedia
What about the Coast Guard, huh? They also have admirals!
Or the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps? How about a Surgeon General for President! Or the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps, you never hear about those guys! (Admittedly there are only 379 of them. Not 379 admirals; 379 total.)
Yes, but the Marine Corps has generals, not admirals.
Note, however, that more post-WWII presidents served in the Navy than any other service.
You’re right. Why did I remember wrong?
Generals were mostly a 19th century phenomena. For most purposes, the U.S. didn’t have a Navy of any importance until the end of the century. After the few years of imperialism concerning the Philippines and Cuba the U.S. went back to not having a Navy anybody paid any attention to. When we did have a Navy in WWII the Army still most of the attention. D-Day was 100x the spectacular than the Pacific war and Eisenhower was seen as the savior.
I’d say that there was almost never a reasonable chance of an admiral gaining the national prominence to run for president. Maybe for a few year window, but if not then, never.
Yes, but the USMC has Generals, Not Admirals.
Technically, if you might have a Rear Admiral, (lower half) O-7, or a Rear Admiral (upper half) O-8.
Always reminded me of those 2 guys wearing a horse consume, one being the upper half, the other being the lower half.
This strikes me as being a simple matter of mathematics:
- There have been far more generals than admirals,
- Stuff like this just happens by random chance, and
- Most generals who became President were back in the day.
The United States has had 12 President/Generals:
Washington
Jackson
Harrison 1.0
Taylor
Pierce
Johnson
Grant
Hayes
Garfield
Arthur
Harrison 2.0
Eisenhower
It is obvious to most, I hope, that all are from prior to 1900 except Eisenhower. In the small-government 1800s, being a general was just a common way to get a name for yourself and prove some leadership abilities, and there just weren’t very many admirals.
Since Benjamin Harrison, the phenomenon of the general-President has simply vanished with the exception of Eisenhower, and if only one flag officer in the 20th century was going to become a President the odds were still heavy it would be a General.
In recent history the US hasn’t been involved in any naval battles which captured the public imagination. Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq I & II, were all primarily land based, with the navy in a secondary role. So people like McArthur, Westmoreland, Powell, Clark & Shwarzkopf and a few others had opportunities to rise to prominence that naval leaders did not have.