I don't care whether a potential candidate has been a Senator, Rep., Governor, General or not

[beaconess]

Unless someone has been a Senator/Representative AND a Governor AND a General, someone will always criticize their "lack of experience." Senators who have never been governors are criticized for having no executive experience. Governors who have never been Senators/Congresspersons are criticized for having no legislative/foreign policy/national security experience. Generals who have never held elective office will be dismissed for lack of political experience.

And anyone who has BOTH types of experience will be blasted for being entrenched politicos.

Experience as a member of the Senate or the chief executive of a state is great, but it's not the end-all and be-all.

For me, the bottom line is not the type of job they had previously, but what they've brought to everything they've done in their lives, whether they've served in public office or worked in the private sector.

I want to know their world view, how they approach issues and problems, how they coordinate and interact with the people working for and with them.

I want them to have demonstrated intellegience, common sense, good judgment, compassion, empathy, intellectual and cultural curiosity, political and social savvy, a willingness to see and consider all sides of an issue, the facility and desire to absorb and synthesize complex and competing thoughts and concepts, an ability to delegate when feasible and take control when necessary (and the instinct to know when to do either), and the capacity to learn, evolve and grow.

That's not too much to ask, is it?

[Hardrada]

1. Or a bishop.

[beaconess]

5. :-)

I could even vote for a knight.

But not a pawn.

[Hardrada]

6. We could still get rooked!

[napingo]

2. No, it's not too much to ask, but it's not the main question that SHOULD be asked, either.IMO

Wouldn't it be better if the qualities of LEADERSHIP were put at the top of your list?

[beaconess]

4. These ARE qualities of leadership!

They're certainly the qualities that *I* look for in a leader.

[Hippo_Tron]

3. K&R

I could honestly care less about the prior offices held by a potential candidate. It is what they do while they occupy that office that matters.

[FrenchieCat]

7. Agreed....

it's about leadership and having the qualities to lead with prescience, intelligence and calm.

Leadership is art of influencing others
75th Air Base Wing staff judge advocateLeadership is the art of influencing others to accomplish a goal. It is also a gift that very few possess — a gift which enables some to inspire and leads others to success. Leaders like Vince Lombardi, Rev. Martin L. King Jr., Gen. Wesley Clark, create, build, leverage, enhance, structure, organize, empower, guide, direct, manage, motivate and follow. They set the example while infusing trust, hope and respect. Leaders are those individuals who truly assign success to the group, but are quick to accept full responsibility for failure; they embrace integrity, fidelity, dedication and service to others. Sometimes, they are not the appointed leader; many leaders arise from answering the call from within the group and later enabling their team to succeed. Leaders are social technicians who have labored in their craft – the art of influencing human behavior. You find leaders in every walk of life: church, scouting, military, industry, politics, etc.
http://www.hilltoptimes.com/story.asp?edition=274&storyid=7419

"I spent about seven years looking into American responses to genocide in the twentieth century, and discovered something that may not surprise you but that did surprise me, which was that until 1999 the United States had actually never intervened to prevent genocide in our nation's history. Successive American presidents had done an absolutely terrific job pledging never again, and remembering the holocaust, but ultimately when genocide confronted them, they weighed the costs and the benefits of intervention, and they decided that the risks of getting involved were actually far greater than the other non-costs from the standpoint of the American public, of staying uninvolved or being bystanders. That changed in the mid-1990s, and it changed in large measure because General Clark rose through the ranks of the American military.
snip
The mark of leadership is not to standup when everybody is standing, but rather to actually stand up when no one else is standing. And it was Pentagon reluctance to intervene in Rwanda, and in Bosnia, that actually made it much, much easier for political leaders to turn away.
snip
in discussing briefly the General's testimony, it's important to remember why he was able to testify at the Hague, and he testified because he decided to own something that was politically very, very unfashionable at the time." --
Samantha Powers, Harvard University - 2003 Pulitzer Award winner of "A Problem from Hell; America and the Age of Genocide".

http://www.kiddingonthesquare.com/2004/01/index.html