That's what blogger Bob Miller, Ph.D. (a retired U.S. Army major) says in a post that's sure to provoke controversy and conversation.
He's put together a chart that weighs every President's experience, from his military service and heroism to his time in public office. If he was a university president or a CEO, that counts too.
According to Miller's analysis:
"John McCain ranked second out of all presidents and current candidates in terms of experience!
"Joe Biden ranked 13th.
"Barack Obama ranked 38th, in the bottom quintile.
"Sarah Palin came in 45th, just ahead of Hillary Clinton in 46th place. Only two presidents had less experience than Hillary.
"No credible weighting of criteria puts Obama anywhere near McCain. Even if we took out all of McCain's military service and heroism, he would be well ahead of Obama and neck-and-neck with Biden. And it is McCain vs. Obama that we're really talking about here: Biden, Palin, and Hillary are largely a distraction."
You'll might be surprised where Lincoln ended up!
If nothing else, this chart is a real conversation starter (and/or Friday time waster) for history buffs and political junkies.
(Thanks to Captain Capitalism from SDA for finding this "experience" chart.)
Comments
Any system that ranks McCain no. 2 and Ford no. 11, while ranking Roosevelt no. 34 and Lincoln no. 42 is a non starter right out of the gate.
Military and Naval service is of paramount VALUE to any country, but service at a rank below general officer really is of very little help to the head of state of a country.
Very credible ranking of US presidents can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_United_States_Presidents
A consensus of the credible ranks Lincoln and Roosevelt no. 1 and 2, while Ford is 28.5 (very generous since he was appointed as a caretaker president and was never elected).
When certain experience correlates so badly with actual performance, common sense says toss it out or at least assign much lower weightings to it.
Why not test this correlation: legal experience versus effectiveness/greatness of a president.
Accountants have a saying: figures don't lie, but liars can figure…
Good Lord, Russ. The creator of the chart provided all manner of caveats about his grading criteria, but the main point of the exercise was to grade the various Presidents' experience PRIOR to serving as President. It had nothing to do with performance while in office.
Thus it's not surprising that Lincoln rates as low as he does.
A rating of performance would of course be almost totally subjective. (And I would rate FDR and Lincoln as the worst two of the lot.)
Intersting to see Grover Cleveland at the very bottom of this ranking. The only thing I know about him is that he regularly vetoed bills by saying, "I can find no authority in the Constitution for this legislation." That alone would put him near the top of my performance-in-office list.
Good Lord, Russ. The creator of the chart provided all manner of caveats about his grading criteria, but the main point of the exercise was to grade the various Presidents' experience PRIOR to serving as President. It had nothing to do with performance while in office.
Thus it's not surprising that Lincoln rates as low as he does.
A rating of performance would of course be almost totally subjective. (And I would rate FDR and Lincoln as the worst two of the lot.)
Intersting to see Grover Cleveland at the very bottom of this ranking. The only thing I know about him is that he regularly vetoed bills by saying, "I can find no authority in the Constitution for this legislation." That alone would put him near the top of my performance-in-office list.
Jeez, Buchanan is #4. He's generally rated by historians as one of the very worst presidents, having accomplished little to avert the Civil War. I wonder if experience in the Senate is negative experience -- that is, the longer you've spent there bloviating and posturing, the less equipped you are to actually lead.
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