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The US Presidential Election: A Race Between The Two Most Unqualified Public Servants In A Century?
While the extreme polarization of our political parties has been discussed often, the upcoming Presidential election is perhaps more notable in another way. Given Obama’s experience as a Senator and Romney’s single term as Massachusetts governor, the 2012 election is as light on 'high-level public sector experience' as we have seen in many decades. The implications are subject to debate, but as JPMorgan's Michael Cembalest points out: there’s no question that it’s an anomaly; or at a minimum, a throwback to the elections of the 19th century, when this kind of thing was more common. At a time when confidence in all institutions (non-financial business, banks, Congress, the Fed, etc) are close to multi-decade lows, this is not a surprise. Why should experience count for anything? Throw the bums out and hand the reins over to outsiders! Still, Michael (like us) finds this chart disconcerting, even though it’s hard to explain why. Do politicians who have not wielded substantial power underestimate the consequences of being wrong? It’s easy to be dead sure about something if you haven’t created a public policy train wreck of your own.
The upcoming election offers voters the least amount of prior “high level public service experience” (as defined in the chart above) in many decades. We started our analysis in 1912 (right before the 1913 adoption of the 17th Amendment providing for direct election of Senators), and added the combined prior experience of both candidates. Given Obama’s experience as a Senator and Romney’s single term as Massachusetts governor, the 2012 election is as light on this front as the 1952 election between Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson. However, the 1952 candidates had a lot more public sector heft than our chart shows. Our methodology excludes Eisenhower’s military background as a senior staff officer for Generals Fox Connor, Moseley and MacArthur in the 1920s and 1930s, and Stevenson’s experience in the State and Navy departments during WW II, and as a member of the US delegation to the UN during its formative years.
So, to find an election this light on public sector experience, you have to go back to the 1924 election between Coolidge and John W Davis, the latter a compromise candidate who had spent 5 years as US Solicitor General. Both Coolidge and Davis had only spent a couple of years as either Governor or in Congress before running. That’s one strange context of the 2012 election: a couple of “one-termers”, with neither having much prior experience at the highest levels of public service (12 years combined, by our count).
The implications are subject to debate, but there’s no question that it’s an anomaly; or at a minimum, a throwback to the elections of the 19th century, when this kind of thing was more common.
Source: JPMorgan
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Businessman? Bain Capital purchased thriving businesses so people like Romney could embezzle from them, gut them and send American jobs to Mexico and Senegal. Romney is the worst sort of opportunistic, cutthroat parasite shithead that American so-called capitalism can produce. The name Willard is appropriate as he's certainly surrounded himself with one goddamned impressive cohort of sewer rats.
Voting for Romney because he was a businessman is like voting for a Mob guy who worked as an arsonist and busted out 30 businesses for the insurance money.The slogan "Fuck you! Vote For Me!" over a burning bulding with an entire plant standing in line to claim uninsurance benefits should be a Romney campaign commercial. Fuck, at least it'd be the first honest campaign commercial in my life time. Close up on a Senegal sweatshop...."Fuck American Workers! Vote Romney!"
never mind what he did in MASS:
- Constructed RomneyCare (otherwise known as HeritageCare, which was a bipartisan fuck-you constructed during the Clinton presidency), and added big corporate provisions: like allowing to NOT offer health insurance to new employees for 6 months, guarunteed premium hikes that match TRUE inflation, stiff fines and penalties for not having health care (while keeping the minimum for having MassHealth at around 16.8K, which means you basically have to do nothing for free health care, while that cost is paid by taxpayers).
- Made MASS a safe haven for illegals, in turn raising crime and a booming welfare state in the New Beford/Fall River and Worcester/Springfield areas (I worked for a constractor that does work for the MASS RepPayee program; the guy basically made this a business by the State raping Federal funds for child support). He also actually cut their costs for college, while RAISING costs on actual tax paying citizens by over 44% while he was here (hence why I didn't go to UMASS...I am not a brown person with a funny name). College tuition was also raised in the private sector during this time, completling the financialization of an area that helps Americans compete (that's why a lib arts degree is worth 100K....his Wall Street masters wanted it so).
- Job creation DECREASED by 20%...which is hard considering we in MA are some of the smartest, educated, hard working, and younger work forces in America.
- Bailed out the Big Dig (again), deregulated safety, and then taking that cash and shuttled it towards his union and construction corporation buddies, which resulted in a woman losing her life when part of the failed-and-under-developed bridge fell on her car (after Mitt left) in 2008.
- Raised MA state income tax, property taxes on middle class families (granted, he did save some of it in the "Rainy Day" fund, which was drained by Unemployment in 08-10).
- Used state funds for State House corporate gigs (I know...I delievered pizza to these assholes on Beacon Hill), helicopter rides (Jane Swift), police escorts to the mall, etc.
- Opposed gay marriage, but then signed into bill for fear it might cost him votes down the line (what a standout guy who sticks by his beliefs!).
Romney is not a BUSINESSMAN - he is a low life vampire slice and dice LBO artist - there is nothing redeeming nor creative in that process it is about capital destruction nothing more - you are a sheeple led by the nose
Dunno if it matters at all ...
Romney is a standard piece of fascist shit, let's say, Reagan the Fifth, or Truman the 2nd. ...
... but, Barry Huso Obama is the ugliest traitor mofo shit ever appeared in the human history. There was never ever such kind of a utter garbage in the power.
He screwed the billions of ppl. who definately voted for a hope.
Josef Göbbels is a saint in comparison with that ugly NWORD global butcher and doouchebag.
I wish that the good Lord makes his semen dissapear from the earth, I wish his name forbidden, I wish he burns in hell,
course on all of his clan, to the ninth grade, I wish his name replace Judas's ....
Romney is just an ugly fascist Tamagochi.
Why don't u kill them both ?
RP
Either is a disaster, but neither is as stupid (hence unqualified) as Bush.
Two most unqualified in a century? George W. Bush is furious right now.
At the low end of the experience curve, we get Eisenhower and Coolidge, and at the high end we get FDR and LBJ? What's the problem again?
The worry isn't experience, it's principle. McCain had experience but no principles, Obama had neither. Romney is another McCain as far as principles go, with a bit less of that crazy uncle vibe.
That's why we cannot forget about RON PAUL, its not over until its over!
I have followed every Presidential election since 1968. Since that time, I have not seen allot of true leadership material. The best seldom ever got the nomination of their party. Now we have come to this. Sickening. The only differance between the two is skin color. Both support big government. Both share a very similar social policy {homosexual marriage}. Both support imperialistic militarism. Both support amnesty for illegals. Both are Wall St. whores. Both worship Israel. Either is going to pick you clean. Either way you vote, they get their boy. Allot of people voting for Romney, only because they believe he will respect our 2nd Ammendment, are going to be in for a unexpected surprise. He is pro gun control. He is every bit as big a liar as the kenyan pretender is. Repukelikans remind me of the crowd of jews gathered in the square when Pilot was offering them a choice between Jesus and Bararbas {think Ron Paul and Mitt Romney}. When asked, they shouted: "GIVE US BARARBAS!". Americans are going to get what they deserve. They traded their liberty for entitlements, Homeland Security, and the Federal Reserve. The best slaves are those who don't realize they are in chains.
No one can run this behemoth. From a systems engineering perspective, this machine has far too many critical elements and potential sub-systems where a short circuit can stop the whole thing. And instead of simplifying the design, "both" parties keep adding new layers of sub-systems to increase the eventual failure's severity.
Ever since both political parties were bought up by the same owners and rebranded as Team Red and Team Blue, what difference does it make how much experience the puppet in chief has?
While the latest manifestation has taken the pantomime to a new blantantly in your face teleprompter low, for decades, most of the real decisions on anything important has not taken place in the oval office. The President has as much decision making power as some talking head TEPCO PR dept spokesman explaining why there is nothing at Fukishima to worry about.
This is why they say people get the governments they deserve !!!!
And in this case, the US population will fully deserve what they elect.....as they clearly have an option.... In spite of how rigged the system is.
Nothing of real significance wil change between the leading contenders, except for the rearranging the chairs on the Titanic or painting parts of the ship...while continuing to protect, enrich and assist the 1%.
Clinton vs. Dole?
Bush vs. Gore?
Bush vs. Kerry?
Tons of competition!
In case people ever wonder how we got this way:
Main Stream Media? It’s all MKULTRA 24/7.
Recently, when reviewing court transcripts and FBI documents covering the Bobby Kennedy assassination in 1968 (said documents and legal proceedings being a complete travesty), I noticed the subtle connections to the former MKULTRA program at the CIA. I confess to ignorance of that program, one so often sees it tied to space aliens and other such trivialities.
On closer examination, one realizes what now appears so obvious: the melding or merging of the advertising genius, Edward Bernays of the Freud family, and his disinformation consulting with the CIA, with the MKULTRA group mind control and attitude adjustment program, extended dramatically through compromised journalists, news outlets and the vast network of so-called think tanks.
Bernays, the mind behind the popularity of the tobacco habit among American women, the combining of bacon and eggs for breakfast, and any number of other PR ploys, worked for the CIA during the 1950s, developing and extending their disinformation department.
Officially in 1953, Richard Helms in his capacity at the agency, approached Director Allen Dulles about starting a program researching group and individual mind control with the use of chemical and biological agents. (Unofficially, the program appears to have begun much earlier with the recruitment of Nazi scientists in the aftermath of World War II.)
This program became known, overall, as MKULTRA.
With Richard Helms as the operations chief, and Sidney Gottlieb, already with the agency since 1951, as its technical chief, the program officially began.
Gottlieb brought the project expertise gained while working on plant diseases and fungicides at the FDA and Department of Agriculture, and ergot alkaloids and hallucinogens while at the National Research Council.
As mentioned previously, this program had appeared to have begun earlier in 1951, when a village in France (Pont Saint Esprit) experienced an outbreak of horrible hysteria and mental breakdown, reminiscent of a bad batch of LSD, but publicly attributed to break mold contamination.
The day prior, an American pilot had rented a plane nearby for crop dusting; he had never been observed before, or since.
Still in France, in 1952, a young American studying painting in Paris, Stanley Glickman, was offered coffee by friendly visiting Americans dressed in business suits from Washington, D.C.
The coffee appeared to have been laced with LSD, or a LSD-type substance, and Glickman was shortly thereafter institutionalized, his young life radically changed --- he was eventually released after treatment, but his abilities were forever curtailed!
Later, there were other strange occurrences involving the MKULTRA program, with a tragic death of Frank Olson, a member of the program who was thought to have been an involuntary test subject, and possibly a talkative hindrance who needed to be permanently removed!
Later still, Frank Wisner, Sr., began exhibiting bizarre behavior and was removed from his senior position at the CIA. Richard Helms, MKULTRA’s operations chief, was promoted to Wisner’s position.
The symptoms exhibited by Frank Wisner were remarkably similar to those associated with a drug which Sidney Gottlieb, MKULTRA’s technical chief, was then experimenting on.
Wisner would eventually commit violent suicide with a shot gun.
A bit later, a precocious student and former child prodigy, Ted Kaczynski, would become unwittingly involved in a research project while a student at Harvard, under the management and direction of Prof. Henry Murray.
Prof. Murray had worked for CIA Director Allen Dulles in the OSS during World War II, and was being funded through the Rockefeller Foundation which, together with the Ford Foundation and several others, served as conduits for financial disbursement for the MKULTRA program (this was revealed in a declassified CIA memo in 1967 --- detailing how over 120 academic institutions were receiving funding for various MKULTRA programs).
Ted Kaczynski left the program in an emotionally disturbed condition --- years later he would gain notoriety as the Unabomber.
Prof. Murray, as it later turned out, was a serious sadist, both in his personal life and professional life.
In 1968, in what appeared to be the final political assassination in a string of political assassinations perpetrated by the oligarchy (President Kennedy in 1963, Malcolm X in 1965, and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. also in 1968), Sen. Bobby Kennedy was tragically gunned down immediately after his win in the California presidential primary.
This too, had subtle connections to the MKULTRA program.
During the 1970s, while under investigation by a congressional committee, now CIA Director Richard Helms ordered the destruction of records pertaining to the MKULTRA program. (At this point it appeared the relocation of the program --- from the CIA to the Pentagon’s control --- was well underway.)
Also in 1973, several members of the MKULTRA program became involved with a TV development project which resulted in the children series, Sesame Street. (This is an oddity which might require further investigation?)
In 1978, ostensibly due to the Powell memorandum, a veritable explosion of so-called think tanks, a slightly more literate astroturf entity, took place, culminating with so many we are bombarded by today: the Cato Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, various organizations funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, etc.
While this seemed to stem from the instigation of Powell’s advice, in actuality it was the next phase of the MKULTRA program, i.e., creating and managing the message.
Also in 1978, the Rockefeller Foundation created the Group of Thirty, consisting of a number of economists and financier types who would espouse the agenda of the speculators and central bankers; some of their members are: Larry Summers, Nicholas Brady, Paul Krugman, Mario Draghi, Jean-Claude Trichet, Paul Volcker, et al.
Likewise in 1978, the mass consolidation of the media would begin, excluding and barring local content discussions while promoting the adoption of single, mass marketed programming, e.g., the Larry King Show out of New York City, instead of locally offered programming. (Controlling the medium)
This was the extension of the MKULTRA program merged with Bernays’ disinformation design --- group mind control and public propagandizing.
Today, if it seems far too many Americans are oblivious, it is because they have been rendered by careful design and malice aforethought!
Edward Benays had a lot to do with educating the Koch brothers grandfather in the formative stages of the use of propaganda for the railroads that Benays fostered in the methodology after WWI - many of the actions of the OSS and CIA were orginally based upon the work of Bernays and ZeMurray the banana king in Guatemala and Nicoragua in the 20's/30's when he took over the country and put his own man as head of the country to eliminate taxes and accumulate land - 95% of Guatemala at one point - Dulles woked for him at Sullivan & Cromwell and was instrumental - learned the ZeMurray tactics for later use in developing the CIA which helped ZeMurray in the second round in the 50's - always the specter of communism as the way of justifying everything they did which was totally for profit - never any real threat to USA
http://2012election.procon.org/view.source-summary-chart.php?topic=64
I see more than the reprobates and demagogues on this list. If you want the status quo then vote for the status quo. If you want change, then vote for change. I resent the title. To me it looks like a race between five and it is our duty as patriots to consider all of the candidates, not just the ones we think have a chance of winning.
When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman?
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2012/06/25/poll_election_wi...
and half the other half don't have a fragrant clue or don't care!!!
chart makes no sense no matter what the methodology ---- to compare 1996 with clinton / dole at the high point ???????
to - eisenhower and stevenson - the supreme allied commander WWII ( no one had a position close to this in the last 200 years) - plus experience to everything back to WWI in various senior positions and is the guy who lead dean acheson / dulles brothers in the cold war - plus stevenson at the UN in its formative years is a total joke to not make this the high point and then - 1936 /40 for FDR election given his legislative record of alphabet agencies in the face of world wide disaster and moves right into WWII without any weight for that is pure propaganda
further is JFK against Nixon 60'- Nixon saw the entire cold war at the highest level plus service WWII - JFK thru his father saw the 1930' 40' 50' at the highest level to include the UK service of his father in the 30's
impossible results to not weight these serious people
the only thing i agree with is Romney is a total and complete joke for experience as a politician, government service and most importantly a business man who was merely a Vampire capitalist nothing more - he is a sick sick dude! couldnt shine the shoes of those people in this post
Actually, Ike was out-ranked {as were all other american WW2 generals-Marshall, MacArthur,etc} by none other than General "Black Jack" Pershing. Pershing was never taken off active status until he died. Because of his seniority, and the title Congress bestowed upon him in 1919:"General of the Armies", plural, no one before or since has held such a high rank in US military history. When during WW2, when the five star general rank was first created, the War Department was going to assign him the rank of six star general. He protested, and they left him at four star rank, but changed the color of his stars from silver to gold. He was famous for resisting american troops being put under command of french and british command during WW1. In my opinion, he was the last true american Supreme Commander.
Hey, I vote to start the whole damn thing over, if both Mitt and Obammy are deleted. Let Jim Webb fill the remaining time as Prez and Stockman can be VP for awhile... Holder goes to prison in favor of Bill Black, Geithner to jail for Jim Grant, Hillary can stay a few more months.