…and have, particularly in the last two years. Could Mitch Daniels become president? It would be nice to have a grownup in the Oval Office again. I think that competent governors like Daniels and Christie, with demonstrated track records, are going to be the mold for successful candidates in 2012, though Romney’s been tainted, as he should be, by MassCare. No more of this nonsense of putting blowhard Senators with no executive experience in the White House (While there are many much more qualified, I still think that Sarah Palin would have made the best president of the four on the ballot in 2008).
8 thoughts on “We Could Do A Lot Worse”
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No! Sarah Palin is evil and some guy on the internet says she believes Jesus rode a dinosaur with lasers on his head (the dinosaur, not Jesus)!
Dude…that was Brian Boitano….
Brain Boitano has lasers on his head?
Yes, blue ones.
what makes that even more funny is that it was 4 different people.
mitch Daniels has done amazing things here, and in local news, EVERY SINGLE THING! he did was treated as “controversial” but it ended up working out.
Maybe that should be a tagline “everything the media things is controversial is controversial because it’s effective.”
Had this discussion recently about the ideal career background for a President. To me, the ideal candidate would have had meaningful experience in the following areas: military service, running or materially participating in a business, state/local government experience, some time in Congress,and a governorship, with some executive branch experience (Cabinet head, ambassador etc.) sprinkled in somewhere during their time at the national level.
The other thing I think a good candidate would do is pick a VP candidate who is older, more experienced in the inner workings of Congress, and NOT looking to run after the current President finishes.
I started working on a spreadsheet to evaluate all of the Presidents on the criteria above, but got distracted on to other things, and didn’t finish. It seems to me (lost my notes) that around 14 Presidents were former VPs, and 19 or so were former Governors.
Unfortunately, these days the path for many candidates seems to be college, law school, private practice, DA, state legislature, Congress, then candidate. Then, when nominated, they look for a “ticket-balancer” which implies that having that person one step way from the Presidency will buy the votes of various blocs seeking a direct voice in the President’s ear. If that person’s own ambitions include being President, they will not be an impartial voice.
Gil Gilliam,
Your analysis is exactly why the Founding Fathers created an Electoral College to select the President instead of popular voting. They recognized the risks of it being a popularity contest.