Do you think experience should be the most important requirement to become a president in the U.S.?

This is, of course, a matter of personal opinion.  My own view is that experience probably should not be the most important qualification that we would look for in a presidential candidate, mainly because there are not really any jobs out there that really count as relevant experience for the job of being president.

Some people say that being governor of a state is good experience for being president.  This may be true in the...

This is, of course, a matter of personal opinion.  My own view is that experience probably should not be the most important qualification that we would look for in a presidential candidate, mainly because there are not really any jobs out there that really count as relevant experience for the job of being president.

Some people say that being governor of a state is good experience for being president.  This may be true in the sense that you have to work with a legislature and run a government.  But governors do not have to do foreign relations or defense policy.  They do not have to try to get legislation through a group as large as Congress and with as many different factions.

President Obama was a senator and so are Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, two of the Republican frontrunners right now.  Senators do have to try to get laws through Congress (if they have laws they want to pass), but they do not do any administration.  They do not actually have to run a government.

What this means is that there really aren’t any jobs that actually prepare a person to be president.  For this reason, I think that the more important factor is the personality of the person running.  Will they be able to effectively get along and work with their political enemies?  Will they be able to communicate their agenda in a way that the American people respond to?  Will they have the temperament needed to face unpredictable crises that will come their way?  Will they be willing to put in the work needed to learn about issues they don’t currently know about?  Will they be humble enough to listen to others’ voices?  I would argue that these factors are more important than the previous offices they have held.