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"How many people are qualified to be Secretary of State? The pool of people who have been around enough countries and political leaders to operate at that level
by pitt1980 12y ago
"How many people are qualified to be Secretary of State? The pool of people who have been around enough countries and political leaders to operate at that level is small."
That's actually an interesting question, what sort of qualifications are needed to do a job like that
I actually think that the universe of people who could do those jobs is actually pretty large
the real limiter is that if you pick someone too far out of the box, you're going to take political fire for it
like Bush did when he tried to nominate Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court
in contrast, when you nominate a known entity, ie Clinton to Secretary of State, they have the political clout to keep unhappy hopefuls (and their bidders) quiet
- tripzilch 12y ago> I actually think that the universe of people who could do those jobs is actually pretty large I'd like to believe that, but it's not just a matter of inherent capability, talent and intelligence. A very large part of the qualifications is experience with bureaucracies, politics, management, power-games, diplomacy. I'm talking 2 decades of experience, at least. Not the kind of stuff you can learn in school (mainly because school just doesn't last long enough), and definitely not the kind of stuff you can pick up on the job, no matter how talented and super bright somebody is. I kind of wish it wasn't sometimes (although other times I'm not so sure of the consequences..) but the fact of the matter is that medium-smart experienced politicians are going to out-politic a super-smart rookie every time.