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July 20, 2008
obama and experience: a history lesson
Would Barack Obama be the least experienced president ever to hold the office? There have been 42 presidents and certainly someone had less experience. Presidential history is a passion of mine and I'm going to go through Presidents until I find one that is comparable to Obama.
First I have to size up Senator Obama. Barack Obama was elected to the senate in 2004. He has served for four years, but spent almost all of the that time running for President. Obama hasn't authored anything significant in the Senate and his only real accomplishment is not voting for the Iraq war. Oh that's right, he wasn't a Senator then... I think the Washington Post got it right, Obama is ultimately indifferent to the war's outcome.
Obama practices his magical stare...
Before Obama was elected Senator he served in the Illinois state Senate for seven years. He has never had any executive experience, and he doesn't have one notable legislative accomplishment. One could argue Obama's greatest accomplishment is receiving the Democrat nomination for president.
Bush didn't have a long history before he was elected Governor of Texas in 1994; however, he was able to secure a second term. He was considered a successful governor and while his foreign policy experience was non existent, Bush had plenty of executive experience. President Bush was more experienced than Obama.
42 - President William J. Clinton
Bill Clinton had over a decade of executive experience as Governor of Arkansas. His foreign policy experience was much like George W. Bush, but there is no question Clinton had a lot of experience in an executive position. Clinton was more experienced than Obama.
41 - President George H. W. Bush
The elder Bush had all kinds of experience. He had served in the House of Representatives, as Vice President, Director of Central Intelligence, Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China, and as United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Bush was more experienced than Obama.
40 - President Ronald Reagan
The last great President of the United States had served for 8 years as the Governor of California. Reagan's success in California ultimately propelled him to the presidency. Reagan had more experience than Obama. One could make the argument that Arnold Schwarzenegger has more experience as well.
39 - President Jimmy Carter
President Carter rose quickly after one term as Georgia Governor. He was helped by political climate after Watergate and by President Ford's pardon of Nixon. Carter's presidency was a disaster, but he was more experienced than Obama.
After Richard Nixon resigned from the office Gerald Ford had the unenviable task of becoming President. Ford was never elected to the White House, but he had served in Congress for over twenty years. While Ford may have never been the people's choice he had a great deal of experience in Congress, more than Obama.
37 - President Richard M. Nixon
Proof that experience doesn't necessarily mean good policy is the Nixon administration. Richard Nixon was a member of the House of Representatives, a Senator, and he served as Vice President. Nixon was certainly more experienced than Obama is today.
36 - President Lyndon B. Johnson
From 1937 to 1961 LBJ served as a member of Congress in the House and later on in the Senate. Johnson had twenty years of experience before he ran as JFK's Vice President. The President that brought us the War on Poverty had more experience that Obama.
35 - President John F. Kennedy
Kennedy has always been remembered as a relatively young and inexperienced when he entered the White House, but JFK is a seasoned veteran when compared to Barack Obama. Kennedy had been a member of Congress for thirteen years when he became President. By any measurement Kennedy had a lot more experience than Obama.
34 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower
While Eisenhower never had much experience in Washington there is no doubt that his vast military experience dwarfs anything Obama has accomplished. In 1942 Eisenhower was appointed Commanding General, European Theater of Operations and in 43 he was named Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. Eisenhower wasn't viewed very well after he left the White House, but he's now seen as one of the top 10 Presidents.
33 - President Harry S. Truman
Truman served for ten years as US Senator from Missouri before FDR named him Vice President. During his ten years in the Senate Truman had some major accomplishments. Obama does not have anything similar on his resume.
32 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt
The twentieth-century's greatest president may have not understood economics, and probably prolonged the Great Depression. However, his leadership guided the nation through two of the greatest threats in history. FDR had served as the Governor of New York, and also as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy under Woodrow Wilson. FDR had a long list of accomplishments before he became President.
History has been cruel to Hoover. I will continue the cruelty. Hoover served as Secretary of Commerce for Calvin Coolidge. Hoover was a political opportunist who only chose the Republican party because it was the dominate party at the time. Hoover was an immensely popular person and that ultimately led to his ascension to the White House. One might argue that Hoover's engineering and humanitarian accomplishments make him a more experienced choice for President than Obama, but I disagree. Much like Obama, Hoover's greatest asset was the public's adoration. Hoover's fondness for government intervention ended up making the depression great, and FDR copied many of his bad ideas. The worst president of the twentieth century was also the least experienced.
Sometimes popularity trumps experience, sometimes experience matters.
Senator Barack Obama would be the least experienced person to become president since Herbert Hoover. The two do not share much in common beside the fact they're both political opportunists. Hoover had a history of preferring government intervention, but Obama's true ideological views are a mystery. If Obama becomes president he won't have to do much to be a better president than Hoover.
Posted by nemov at July 20, 2008 3:05 PM
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