Is political experience really necessary for a Presidential Candidate?

Question

Sometimes I wonder if a politician is the wrong person for the job.

Answer 1

I believe that experience is not the main issue in becoming President of the United States. I am assuming you are talking about Barack Obama. Yes, some political experience is needed to run the White House in my opinion, and Barack Obama has that. You can't deny it. People are putting WAY too much emphasis on experience, particularly Clinton supporters. I like what Barack Obama said on the Daily Show when he was asked this question. He said that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld have more experience than anyone around and look where that got us. It was something like that, but I think he has a great point. Experience has no effect on how someone runs the White House. Its judgement and policy that matters and I believe that Barack Obama has the right kind of judgement, right policy, and has the right mind on how the country should be ran.

Answer 2

As long as we had the expectation that a politician ran government offices and legislated, we were in pretty good shape. That's their business, when they do it well, things run well. When Clinton got elected that changed the tenor of the conversation about what we wanted in a politician. Now we are given the background of each politician as if it matters. His or her flaws, college thesis, grades, and so on back into grade school and college DUIs, no, not the Kennedy's, Bush's'
of course that was when he was thirty, but hey. Cheney had two DUI at 21 and 22.
Now we are looking for a saint to be president, That's not going to happen, we need to look for someone to run things well, not to have a beer with, not to have some fun with, but a hardworking, intelligent respected person. Forget the sainthood, forget the phony family values, let find someone to be a competent politician, that's tough enough.

Answer 3

if they don't have experience (e.g., Obama) they won't know what to do in a crisis. Besides, Obama already said we should bomb other countries. That's positive proof that he's not the right person.

Answer 4

Apparently not...Reagan was a movie star without any noticeable experience in politics. Only his own personal opinions.

Answer 5

No.

Apparently, someone doesn't realize that Reagan was Governor of California.

Answer 6

Some, it makes it easier to vote for the future when you know the past.