5 ms·

He's nice and all, but can we go back to electing Presidents who have had lots of executive and political experience ?

by jak92 8y ago

dvtrn 8y ago
What, was being an elected congressman not enough?
- dv_dt 8y ago
  Though some Presidents have served as house representatives in their past, none of them made the Presidency without doing something else in between their house service and winning the presidency. https://history.house.gov/People/Other-Office/Member-President/ https://history.house.gov/People/Other-Office/Member-Preside...
  - dvtrn 8y ago
    Still satisfies the stated refrain of "having political experience", but an interesting historical factoid nonetheless.
    - dragonwriter 8y ago
      > Still satisfies the stated refrain of "having political experience” The request was for candidates with “lots of political and executive experience”, not merely some political experience.
    - dv_dt 8y ago
      The "something else" was mostly to get more experience in leadership. The president with the shortest jump from House to VP then President, for example, Gerald Ford, had been the minority leader for five terms. It's not just a factoid. It shows that more experience has been generally required.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  3 terms in the House and some local council work is not “lots of political experience”, at least by the standards of historical Presidents. Whether the software/services for he founded in 1998 and ran until...sometime before March 2017 is lots of executive experience is debatable, but it's certainly not particularly large scale executive experience for a Presidential candidate.
dv_dt 8y ago
And with an open and thought through policy platform deeper than platitudes.
dboreham 8y ago
I think the assumption is that any such candidate has been bought long ago by "special interests". So you're looking for a candidate with executive and political experience who will work on behalf of the people. I think that ship sailed with the likes of Winston Churchill and Eisenhower.
charliesharding 8y ago
But he's not just nice.. He's pretty, played in a band, and is exceptionally good at hand waving. In debate he masterfully dodges substantive discussion in favor of vast, inclusive, amorphous nicety rhetoric. Unfortunately however, he may be too white and male to appease his party's intersectional hierarchy.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  > Unfortunately however, he may be too white and male to appease his party's intersectional hierarchy. Given that the top two Democratic candidates for 2020 by current polling are Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, I don't think there's much reason to think that being white or male is a huge disadvantage. His thin resume, OTOH...
  - dvtrn 8y ago
    Interested voter here, Illinois 4th Congressional District, could I get a link to your polling data?
    - emanuensis 8y ago
      Simple Google: https://www.google.com/search?q=biden+sanders+poll+lead https://www.google.com/search?q=biden+sanders+poll+lead
  - bitlax 8y ago
    Sanders was the frontrunner last time and they kneecapped him.
    - paulgb 8y ago
      Front-runner in what sense? I don't think he ever led in the polls, did he? e.g. https://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-national-democratic-primary https://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-national-...
    - dragonwriter 8y ago
moorhosj 8y ago
Is it safe to say your preference is former Governors?
- jak92 8y ago
  Jeb!
- tropo 8y ago
  I think "lots of executive and political experience" means he wants the incumbent. The only other eligible person with comparable experience is Bush Sr.
krapp 8y ago
Unfortunately, no, because Americans culturally despise executive and political experience. We want cowboys staring down the world with steely-eyed grit, and ruthless CEOs running the government like a corporation, and anti-establishment bulls smashing up the china shop of the status quo. We want Mr. Smith to go to Washington and tell them we're mad as hell and we're not gonna take it any more.

He's nice and all, but can we go back to electing Presidents who have had lots of executive and political experience ?

by jak92 8y ago

He's nice and all, but can we go back to electing Presidents who have had lots of executive and political experience ?

dvtrn 8y ago

What, was being an elected congressman not enough?

dv_dt 8y ago
Though some Presidents have served as house representatives in their past, none of them made the Presidency without doing something else in between their house service and winning the presidency. https://history.house.gov/People/Other-Office/Member-President/ https://history.house.gov/People/Other-Office/Member-Preside...
- dvtrn 8y ago
  Still satisfies the stated refrain of "having political experience", but an interesting historical factoid nonetheless.
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    > Still satisfies the stated refrain of "having political experience” The request was for candidates with “lots of political and executive experience”, not merely some political experience.
  - dv_dt 8y ago
    The "something else" was mostly to get more experience in leadership. The president with the shortest jump from House to VP then President, for example, Gerald Ford, had been the minority leader for five terms. It's not just a factoid. It shows that more experience has been generally required.
dragonwriter 8y ago
3 terms in the House and some local council work is not “lots of political experience”, at least by the standards of historical Presidents. Whether the software/services for he founded in 1998 and ran until...sometime before March 2017 is lots of executive experience is debatable, but it's certainly not particularly large scale executive experience for a Presidential candidate.

dv_dt 8y ago

And with an open and thought through policy platform deeper than platitudes.

dboreham 8y ago

I think the assumption is that any such candidate has been bought long ago by "special interests". So you're looking for a candidate with executive and political experience who will work on behalf of the people. I think that ship sailed with the likes of Winston Churchill and Eisenhower.

charliesharding 8y ago

But he's not just nice.. He's pretty, played in a band, and is exceptionally good at hand waving. In debate he masterfully dodges substantive discussion in favor of vast, inclusive, amorphous nicety rhetoric. Unfortunately however, he may be too white and male to appease his party's intersectional hierarchy.

dragonwriter 8y ago
> Unfortunately however, he may be too white and male to appease his party's intersectional hierarchy. Given that the top two Democratic candidates for 2020 by current polling are Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, I don't think there's much reason to think that being white or male is a huge disadvantage. His thin resume, OTOH...
- dvtrn 8y ago
  Interested voter here, Illinois 4th Congressional District, could I get a link to your polling data?
  - emanuensis 8y ago
    Simple Google: https://www.google.com/search?q=biden+sanders+poll+lead https://www.google.com/search?q=biden+sanders+poll+lead
- bitlax 8y ago
  Sanders was the frontrunner last time and they kneecapped him.
  - paulgb 8y ago
    Front-runner in what sense? I don't think he ever led in the polls, did he? e.g. https://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-national-democratic-primary https://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-national-...
  - dragonwriter 8y ago

moorhosj 8y ago

Is it safe to say your preference is former Governors?

jak92 8y ago
Jeb!
tropo 8y ago
I think "lots of executive and political experience" means he wants the incumbent. The only other eligible person with comparable experience is Bush Sr.

krapp 8y ago

Unfortunately, no, because Americans culturally despise executive and political experience. We want cowboys staring down the world with steely-eyed grit, and ruthless CEOs running the government like a corporation, and anti-establishment bulls smashing up the china shop of the status quo. We want Mr. Smith to go to Washington and tell them we're mad as hell and we're not gonna take it any more.