Tillerson's struggles show the risk of a president and secretary of state with no gov't experience

[DonViejo]

Rex Tillerson’s struggles show the risk of a president and secretary of state with no government experience

By James Hohmann January 12 at 10:33 AM

THE BIG IDEA: For the first time in American history, both the president and the nation’s chief diplomat are poised to have no prior government, military or legislative experience. This is a recipe for trouble. Rex Tillerson’s shaky performance yesterday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee underscored why.

The world was already a tinderbox, and Donald Trump has only contributed to the instability in the two months since he won the election. Russia, which got the outcome it wanted, is emboldened. China is on the march. Democracy is in retreat. The already-wobbly western alliance is in danger.

ExxonMobil’s market capitalization is larger than the GDP of many countries, and Tillerson has negotiated many ten-figure deals with foreign leaders. But shuttle diplomacy, grand strategy and the federal government’s mazelike bureaucracy are very different beasts.

Trump clearly believes that business experience tops government or legislative experience. Maybe he’ll be proven right. But kings of the C-suite always have less experience getting challenged, attacked and criticized in public than they think when they try to enter the political arena. Which is why Tillerson let himself get repeatedly rattled and, as a nine-hour hearing dragged on, pulled into unnecessary squabbles with senators, including one in his own party.

It all added up to a pretty bad first impression for the 64-year-old Texan. If he didn’t fully grasp how different senators are than shareholders, he learned it the hard way.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/01/12/daily-202-rex-tillerson-s-struggles-show-the-risk-of-a-president-and-secretary-of-state-with-no-government-experience/5876d716e9b69b36fcfeafbf/?utm_term=.87ec328325f6&wpisrc=nl_daily202&wpmm=1