So, YHB was invited by our Gracious Host to discuss Barack Obama’s announcement speech, so I will, and I’m working on that. But as I started looking around, I was thinking, when was the last time we elected a President that had no real executive branch experience? Our Only President was a Governor, and Our Previous President was a Governor, and the President Before That had been Vice-President. That takes us back to Ronald Reagan, who had been a Governor, and Jimmy Carter, who had been a governor. Richard Nixon was Vice-President, as was Lyndon Johnson, if you can even count him. So we’re back to John F. Kennedy, who of course was the last President to be elected as a sitting Senator as well, if that counts for anything (RMN, LBJ and GHWB<\/strike> had been Senators as well, b.v.p.). Before that, we had a General, which is wacky, and before that, a vice-President, and before that a Governor, and before that—we’re talking about Herbert Hoover, by the way—a Secretary of Commerce. Seriously. Before him, a veep (and former Governor). And Warren Harding was the other sitting Senator to be elected President, having only been Lieutenant Governor. T. Woodrow Wilson was a Governor (and college president!). William Taft had been a judge (!!) and Governor-General of the Philippines, which has got to count, right? TR had been a Vice-President, and like Lyndon Johnson and Calvin Coolidge, wasn’t elected to the Presidency but re-elected, so you have to count that as executive experience. William McKinley was a Governor, and we’re back to 1896, so we’ve long passed anything remotely relevant, but just for fun, in 1892 we elected a former President, so how’s that<\/I> for Executive experience?\n
So. The presidents without Executive experience were John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Warren G. Harding [and Herbert Hoover]. Now, the history of the American Presidency is a history of exceptions, rather than rules, so I’m not saying that it’s impossible or even unlikely that Our Next President will have no Executive branch experience. Our Next President will be an exception one way or another, I’m sure, even if it is another white guy. But there is a reason why we prefer our Presidents to have that Executive experience.\n
Who are the Democratic Candidates for President? Let’s start with the top tier in the polls: Barack Obama (serving his first term as Senator, having been a State Senator), Hilary Clinton (starting her second term as Senator, having never held any elective office of any kind previous to the US Senate, but having a kind of Executive Branch experience unavailable to previous generations of candidates), and John Edwards (a one-term Senator, having never held elective office previous to the US Senate, but having campaign<\/I> experience on a national ticket). Who else? Joe Biden has been a distinguished Senator for six terms, with no Executive experience. Christopher Dodd has been an undistinguished Senator for five terms, with no Executive experience. Wesley Clark has never held elective office of any kind. Mike Gravel was a two-term Senator, with no Executive experience. Dennis Kucinich has been in the US House for ten years now, and was Mayor of Cleveland almost thirty years ago, but has never held any higher Executive office.\n
Which leaves us with Tom Vilsack, Governor of Iowa, and Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico. Oh, and one other possible candidate—he’s not actually running, of course, but for some odd reason, people keep mentioning his name—with experience in the Executive Branch. We’re not waiting for Mario anymore.\n
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus<\/I>,
-Vardibidian.\n
[Edited after posting to correct two minor errors and to improve the title]\n<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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