Presidential Experience

Time to put the Brad Lidge facts on hold for a little bit, though there will be more, I assure you.

This, I suppose, would refer to both Obama and Palin, who have little governmental experience, especially when in comparison with their respective running mates.

There have been great Presidents with a lot of experience (LBJ, FDR, Jackson). There have been awful Presidents with a lot of experience (Pierce, Garfield, Harrison). There have been awful Presidents with only a little experience (Grant). There have been great Presidents with only a little experience (Wilson, TR, Taft).

The roundabout point there, is there really isn't any particular job that can prepare one for being a President. It would appear that since Kennedy, the requirement would be either being a Governor or Vice President. But the truth is many people from many previous jobs have become President -- Senators, Governors, Generals, Representatives, etc.

But quite possibly the President with the least experience coming into office, is considered by many to be one of the greatest. In addition, he arguably had to deal with the largest crisis this nation has ever faced.

This man is Abraham Lincoln.

His government experience is essentially limited to ONE term in the House of Representatives (that's only two years) as a member of the Whig party. He decided not to run for re-election because he was deemed unelectable in his district -- he had been a strong opponent of the Mexican-American war, while it was wildly popular in his region of Illinois. By naming the war, you should also be able to figure out that this one term was in the 1840's, Lincoln was President from 1861-1865. After his stint in Congress, he returned to his law practice. While he argued cases before the State Supreme Court, he really didn't do anything again politically until he tried running for an Illinois Senate seat in 1858 as a member of the new Republican party. This campaign brought about the famous Lincoln-Douglass debates. Back then, Senate seats were decided by the State legislatures, and the Douglass' Democrats won more seats, thus making Douglass Senator. In 1860, the Republican Party decided to run Abraham Lincoln for President. The Democratic Party was split in two over the issue of slavery, and ran a northern and southern candidate (oddly enough, the northern candidate was none other than Douglass). A fourth party took further votes away from the Democratic party. The split in the dominating party of the time allowed Lincoln to capture enough electoral votes to become President, even though he had only won a small portion of the popular vote(>40%). Douglass, while winning the second largest portion of the popular vote, mostly received them from areas Lincoln won, and ended up only winning the State of Missouri, and half of New Jersey.

So what does this all mean -- When it comes down to it, sometimes experience means crap. The most qualified man should always be picked, but when there is no true training ground to become President, there really is no experience that can be counted against another's.

It's more about the person themselves, who they are, not what they've done.

--Knuttel