RochesterConservative.com

As the United States stands today, there is no race more important than next year’s Presidential campaign. The next President will oversee the budget explosion as the baby boomers retire, must create a firm national security plan in the face of an open border, a Middle East facing a state of turmoil, especially if we cut and run like we did in Vietnam, rising oil prices and the re-emergence of a bellicose Russia, and they will also likely nominate 1-3 Supreme Court Justices as Stevens (87), Kennedy (77) and Ginsburg (74) continue to age.

The leading front-runners today are (in no particular order):

Democrats Hillary Clinton (Sen – NY), Barrack Obama (Sen – IL) and John Edwards (Sen – NC).

Republicans Rudy Giuliani (Mayor – NYC), Mitt Romney (Gov – MA), Fred Thompson (Sen – TN), Mike Huckabee (Gov – AR), John McCain (Sen – AZ) and Ron Paul (Rep – TX).

Rather than focus on the politics of each candidate, I’ll save that for another time since it is what we’re most exposed to, I’d like to approach things from a different angle.

The Presidency, as proscribed by the Constitution, is primarily an executive office and as such, we’ve generally elected people who have spent time overseeing states, served in an assistant executive role or were top tier generals who managed the strategy and logistics of thousands of men while their lives were on the line.

Congress, on the other hand, is more like academia. They sit in ivory towers, making up the rules that others must follow. Their world is one of the theoretical, creating law based on how they think things should be done and how they hope things will pan out. When things don’t go well, instead of leading, they tend to sling mud at the highest ranking opposition party member they can find. That’s why you’ll find our President being nitpicked for things he’s not even responsible for, like the incident at Abu Ghraib or being attacked over the definition of torture (which, Congress can define at any time, they simply refuse to, because they want blood on someone else’s hand).

In light of that contrast, a simple breakdown of who we’ve chosen to be the leader of our armed forces, the chief executive of our country and the executor of our policies.

Forty two different Presidents have served for us in the history of our country (Grover Cleveland counting twice as his terms weren’t consecutive). Of those 42 Presidents, we have had 29 people who served as Vice-President or Governor, 6 Generals, 4 Presidential Cabinet members and 3 Congressmen.

Read that again, only 3 Presidents out of 42 served no executive role prior to taking office. While any investor can tell you past performance is not a guarantee of future results, America has pretty consistently chosen an executive to head our country. The interesting fact is that Democrats, who’s entire campaign platform over the past decade amounts to “we’re not Republicans” with no originality of their own, is only offering Senators as their candidates. The Republicans, on the other hand, are running two candidates, Rudy Giulliani and Mitt Romney, who not only have executive experience, they won those seats in races where the registered Democrats outnumber them by as much as 5 to 1.

We’re still months away from the first primaries, but things are already looking good for us. Not only do the Democratic candidates have no executive experience, they all have major weaknesses that can be exposed to show the country just how poorly they will lead us. However, discussion of those weaknesses are for another day.

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I’ve included the list of Presidents and the highest office they served for those who are interested.

1. Washington: General
2. John Adams: Vice President
3. Jefferson: Vice President
4. Madison: Secretary of State
5. Monroe: Governor
6. J.Q. Adams: Secretary of State
7. Jackson: General and Military Governor
8. Van Buren: Vice President and Governor
9. Harrison: General and Military Governor
10. Tyler: Vice President and Governor
11. Polk: Governor
12. Taylor: General
13. Fillmore: Vice President
14. Pierce: General
15. Buchanan: Secretary of State
16. Lincoln: US Representative
17. A Johnson: Vice President
18. Grant: General
19. Hayes: Governor
20. Garfield: General
21. McArthur: Vice President
22. Cleveland: Governor
23. Harrison: Senator
24. Cleveland: President
25. McKinley: Governor
26. T Roosevelt: Vice President and Governor
27. Taft: Governor and Chief Justice
28. Wilson: Governor
29. Harding: Lt. Governor
30. Coolidge: Vice President and Governor
31. Hoover: Secretary of Commerce
32. F.D. Roosevelt: Governor
33. Truman: Vice President
34. Eisenhower: General
35. Kennedy: Senator
36. LB Johnson: Vice President
37. Nixon: Vice President
38. Ford: Vice President
39. Carter: Governor
40. Reagan: Governor
41. GHW Bush: Vice President
42. Clinton: Governor
43. GH Bush: Governor