Friday, September 30, 2016

Most Qualififed Candidate? That's a Crock of....

Welcome to Tony Island blog!


So, this little gem appeared in my Facebook timeline...and after laughing out loud, I decided I had to comment on it. Is Hillary truly the most qualified candidate? Is Trump the least qualified?

In the past 36 years or so, I can think of 2 candidates who are MORE qualified than Hillary is.

1) George H. W. Bush (#41) - The Left ridiculed Bush relentlessly when he was running for re-election against Bill Clinton, but that doesn't in any way diminish his many accomplishments.

He was:
- one of the youngest naval aviators (age 19) in World War II.
- was in combat during the War
- was a US Representative from 1967 - 1971
- was Ambassador to the United Nations from 1971-1973 (having been confirmed unanimously by the Senate)
- was Envoy to China 1974-1975
- was Director of the CIA 1976-1977

And, most importantly, was Vice President of the United States from 1980 - 1989.

Of course, he had a marriage and children along with running businesses, etc. The man was highly accomplished. And, unlike "co-president" Hillary Clinton, Bush's Vice Presidential role is actually a Constitutional role and not some made up crap like "co-president".

2) Bill Clinton (re-election) - When Bill Clinton was first elected President, he had been his state's Attorney General and Governor beforehand, both impressive leadership roles from which to launch a Presidential campaign. When he was running for re-election, he could add "President of the United States" to his resume - again, solid training for becoming President of the United States a second time. These were real Constitutional roles, not made up roles such as "First Lady" or "co-president" like Hillary has on HER resume.

So right there, we can see that Hillary is NOT the "most" qualified candidate in modern history. She has some laudable qualifications but her ONLY true Constitutional role was as Senator from New York (NB: Secretary of State is not a directly created Constitutional role).

Now, the bigger question: is Trump the LEAST qualified? In some cases, he may be, only because many Presidents were previously Governors or had other direct government experience. In other instances, he does have some solid qualifications in his role as CEO of Trump Corporation. He's run the company for almost 40 years, has properties around the world (thus having to deal with various laws in each country) and has interacted with various levels of government here in the US and around the world wherever he has built something. Whether his company is worth $1.00 or multi-billions, he is still a successful real estate developer. Having executive experience such as his is fairly valuable. It would be more re-assuring had he had some government position under his belt (Mayor, Representative, Governor, etc) but such is life. Some Presidents with lots of "knowledge" failed miserably at the job such as Jimmy Carter.

In the end, I'd take the above meme with a grain of salt .. a large grain. She has some qualifications, but certainly is NOT the "most" qualified in modern history.

Share your thoughts below!

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