If Experience was Necessary, Why Didn't the Founding Fathers Include it?

Question

All of this talk about experience, military service, foreign trips are nothing more than Repbulican distractions from real issues.

The US Constitution doesn' t list or imply any experience or criteria, other than age and citizenship, to any of the three Branches of Government.

The Founding Fathers wanted a nation ruled by the people for the people, not technocrats, ogliarchs and autocrats.

If they wanted such a nation they would have specified minimum education and experience requirements for the branches.

If we want such requirements, then we need to change the Constitution and then we know what to qualify candidates on.

Aside from that history has clearly shown that experience doesn't mean that the President (or any other branch leader) will do a great job.

Answer 1

G.W. Bush had experience and it didn't help him one bit lol.  

Answer 2

Experience is a very important factor when selecting the president.

Bush Junior  looked like he had it (same  as McCain does) but he ended in the swamp because he couldn't make a single correct decision .

Wisdom and open mind of the president comes before his experience as a success factor for leading the nation.  

Any of the founding fathers will make a lousy president if he is elected today. World is changing and young and new blood is what the US needs

Answer 3

you comparing being a president 100s of years ago to having to take on the challenge today ???? theres your answer right there the type writer hadn't even been invented back then nor the car, plus the population of the USA was significantly less back then?? so unfortunately hate to break it to you but needing experience is a consequence of living in modern times  

Answer 4

Because contrary to popular belief, they didnt actually know everything.

Answer 5

The founding fathers did not know how corrupt the media would become and how gullible the public has shown to be. Obama has not taken any action to acknowledge the good job our troops have done.  Liberals have never given them credit for protecting us. Mistakes were made but now things are different and I'm voting for McCain because he will not quit like Obama and Biden want to do.

Answer 6

i agree with you 100%  

Answer 7

There's nothing particular that makes one ready for the Presidency. Obama is mobilizing people to be more involved in politics so the government will be held more accountable to the people.

Answer 8

You are absolutely correct.  Rhetoric has nothing to do with the constitution, but neither do most voters.  They wouldn't recognize an amendment if it sprouted arms and legs, walked up to them and began reciting itself.

Very little brain goes into most people's choices in this country.  How do you think we had Bush for 8 years?  

Answer 9

The Founding Fathers HAD experience!   And the 14th Amendment was not created so illegal aliens could drop anchor!

Answer 10

No one said Experience was necessary to qualify.

However, it is desired.

Answer 11

George Will wrote a column that appeared in the San Diego Unioon-Tribune this morning, where he cited that the word "experience" appeared 85 times in the Federalist Papers. And, most of the time the context was that our political leaders gain wisdom through experience.

Answer 12

Here is the thing about experience: Experience is the knowledge of things that have occurred and have past by. Having a lot of it is good for story telling but not important to lead a country, do you want to know why? I'll put it in a simple parable: The world turns constantly and changes every day, every hour, every minute and every second. So how can something that belongs in the past be important in a time where things change so rapidly its difficult to keep up?

So smarts and progressive ideas will always beat experience. Ergo, Obama is the better man for the job.

Answer 13

the founding father knew what they were doing..they were not

just *community blah blah blah.*

Answer 14

They thought that experience was a no-brainer. That their decendents would automatically seek out the most experienced for the nation's highest office.

Answer 15

the founding fathers also put many things into the constitution that are completely ignored by mccain,obama, and the current administration.  if you really like the constitution i hope you supported ron paul, or are supporting bob barr.

Answer 16

Does "heck of a job Brownie" mean anything to you?

See what happens when the staggering lack of experience only cripples an already inexperienced administration? People die. Lots of people die.

As a democrat, I did look at Obama's lack of experience as an issue, but he made a great decision in vetting and vp-ing Joe Biden.

John McCain does not have much experience that makes him qualified to be commander in chief either (oh, I'm sorry he was a POW so how dare I say anything derogatory about him), and Sara Palin, until a couple of days ago I had never even heard of her... who the h**l is this soccer mom who is going to be one heart attack of melanoma away from leading this great country?

We're in for a ride, thank god Obama is going to win, obviously.  

Answer 17

I am an ardent McCain supporter and I actually have to agree with you on this point. The founding fathers wanted the President to be a citizen executive, not a career politician. This is the way politics is supposed to work - one of the folks who knows how the government's actions affect life on the ground gets into office, enacts the will of the people, and then goes home to continue his life. Instead, we have parasites called career politicians feeding off the trough of public taxpayer dollars and enriching themselves and their constituents while forgetting about the people who put them in power to begin with.

It is a crooked system and if there is any argument for why Obama and Palin are better than the rest, this is it.

Answer 18

Because they were smart enough to know that a brain and the ability to get others to help you are just as important, if not more so.  

Answer 19

No, experience doesn't man a leader will do a great job.  But it's a good indicator that they will.

And there are a lot of things the constitution doesn't "require" a president to be, but that we certainly want.  For instance, we'd probably not a want a president to believe he was a chimpanzee.. but it's not a legal requirement.

Answer 20

Right!  Abe Lincoln had one term in Congress before being elected, and most people think he was one of our greatest presidents.  On the other hand, Cheney and Rumsfeld had over 60 years of experience between them, and they ran our country into a huge ditch.

Also, most of the people trying to slam Obama for having no experience voted for Bush twice.  Kerry and Gore both had far more experience than a governor from a weak governor state.  So it's just THIS year that magically "experience" has become their criterion.

Answer 21

The Founders most certainly valued experience.

Read the Constitution.  The President is chosen not by popular vote, but by the Electoral College.  Also according to the Constitution, the Electoral College is not chosen by ANY specific means, but in a manner that the states themselves choose.  Think about that.  It means, as observed in Bush vs. Gore, individual citizens have NO Constitutional right to vote for the President.  If your state gave the governor the power to appoint them without any input from anyone, the USSC couldn't say that's wrong.

Why did they do this? Same reason they SPECIFICALLY gave the selection of Senators to the legislatures of the states.  Not a delegable power, but the legislature had to decide who their Senators would be.  Those Senators would sit for six years, not a mere two like the possibly total amateurs the People chose.

You are greatly underestimating the value the Founders placed on wisdom and experience, and thoughtful reflection.

Answer 22

if it was "unnecessary" why would the candidate of "bringing change to DC" need Biden as his compensation...?

Answer 23

This is the same question I've seen Dems post a couple times today.  Is this evidence that they're finally conceding that Barack Hussein Obama has no experience?