Experience: The Definitive Presidential Qualification

Much has been made over the course of this political season (tedious and laborious as it has been) about the qualifications of presidential candidates. Whether or not it TRULY matters to voters is a question only a scientific pollster can answer. What we common citizens can consider, however, is recent electoral history. Consider this, no candidate has won the presidency while serving at the time of his election as a U.S. Senator since 1960 (JFK). This leaves a succession of vice-presidents and governors who have won the coveted prize in the last 48 years. Not possible? Check the facts.

- Lyndon Johnson - 1964 - Re-elected President after assuming the role upon President Kennedy's death.
- Richard Nixon - 1968 - Vice-President in the Eisenhower administration.
- (Ford was never Elected)
- Jimmy Carter - 1976 - Governor of Georgia
- Ronald Reagan - 1980 - Former Governor of California
- George H.W. Bush - 1988 - Vice-President in the Reagan administration
- Bill Clinton - 1992 - Governor of Arkansas
- George W. Bush - 2000- Governor of Texas

What does this reveal? Are Vice-Presidents and Governors more likeable? Not necessarily. But it reveals a trend that voters tend to lean toward the candidate with experience as an executive. Even Kennedy, the last sitting Senator to be elected, was lieutenant in the Navy, serving as the commander of a patrol torpedo (PT) boat. This leaves Herbert Hoover (1928) as the last President to have no service as an executive at the time of his election.

So what do we make of this with two Senators bearing the standard of our major parties? Something's gotta give right? Sure. But like Kennedy, John McCain served as a leader in the Navy. He was a captain and served as the commanding officer of a flight squadron. The only (or one of two if you count Joe Biden) person with NO experience as an executive in this election is the Junior Senator from Illinois: Barack Obama.

So when you hear people say Governor Palin has more experience than Obama, they're not exactly correct. Experience in and of itself is a fleeting and subjective concept. What they should say is that the Republican Vice-Presidential Nominee has more executive experience (the kind that presidents need) than the nominee of the Democratic Party.