VMI77 wrote:JALLEN wrote:Political experience is mighty handy, although perhaps not indispensible.
When Harry Truman was asked about Kennedy's Cabinet picks, which included a number of academics, his brother, and few who had ever held elective office, Truman said that "Kennedy would be a lot better off if any of them had ever run for Sheriff."
Come now, you can't compare the politicians back when Truman and Kennedy were president with the rats infesting Congress and the Presidency today. I'm not personally a fan of either man but there hasn't been a president of equal stature for well over 25 years. And there are no more Humphreys or Moniyhans or Goldwaters in Congress. Now we've got a Reid and a McConnell. The current clown in the oval office doesn't even exist in an analogous political universe. Neither Truman or Kennedy was the kind of petulant narcissistic man-child us beleaguered proles now have to endure day after day. I look back on someone only comparatively honest like Richard Nixon with nostalgia.
And we have so much to look forward to.....another year of Obama who is a giant step down from Nixon, and the maybe 4-8 years of Hillary, an equally giant and more dangerous step down from Obama.
This reminds me of the funeral where the preacher invited those gathered to come up and share their thoughts, memories of the dearly departed, and no one moved, despite several invitations. Finally, the preacher implored, "Surely there must be someone here who can say something good about this man."
A voice near the back of the church hollered, "His brother was worse!"
I am an admirer of Truman, despite his political leanings, after reading and studying his various biographies. I can't say that about Kennedy who I regard, along with his family, as a complete phony, unabashedly amoral and untrustworthy through and through, whose only lasting impact was to inspire little Billy Clinton to want to be President in the worst way which, eventually, he was. Truman was not an admirer of the Kennedys either.
But back to my point, which was that some successful practitioners have expressed the view that it is helpful to have grass roots political experience when confronting and navigating the pressures and ambiguities and temptations of high office.
Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.