Verily
Cuivienen
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Posts: 16,663
Political Matrix
E: 1.81, S: -6.78
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« on: December 29, 2007, 10:07:21 PM » |
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And, just on experience itself, few if any of our successful Presidents have been particularly experienced in politics.
We can go very early and look at Washington, though then we have to skip the time when you had to have been involved in the Constitution to run for the Presidency. Then we come upon Jackson, who was in stark contrast to the much more experienced JQ Adams (regardless of whom I would have supported, certainly Jackson was a more effective President). Skipping down the line we get the dichotomy of Buchanan (experienced and a disaster) and Lincoln (inexperienced and a near-miracle), and then also [Andrew] Johnson (experienced and a near-disaster).
Further down, we get McKinley (experienced but ineffective and overwhelmed), followed by [Teddy] Roosevelt (inexperienced and very effective). Taft was very experienced and did very poorly; Wilson was also experienced and bungled the post-War. Coolidge was experienced and didn't do anything (so his effectiveness may be regarded as low, whether you think he was successful or not), and Hoover's milieu of experience couldn't salvage the Great Depression. Nor could [Franklin] Roosevelt's, in the short term.
Truman was effective as an experienced President, but so was Eisenhower as an inexperienced one. Kennedy's short Presidency seemed effective, though he was inexperienced; Johnson, despite experience, bungled Vietnam. Nixon's experience led to his fall from grace in a massive scandal; Ford's experience only made his short Presidency lackluster. Carter was inexperienced and ineffective, but Reagan thereafter was inexperienced and effective (having last held any office nearly a decade before assuming the Presidency). [George H. W.] Bush was experienced but very ineffective; Clinton was inexperienced and effective. [George W.] Bush was inexperienced and ineffective.
The data for experience as a benefit are at best inconclusive, and at worst suggest that experienced candidates actually perform poorly compared to inexperienced candidates, on average.
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