Historian Jonathan Zimmerman: History shows business experience doesn't make a good president

[salvorhardin]

Good presidents need experience in the business world, right? Wrong. Of all the GOP’s campaign-season talking points, this one is the easiest to debunk.

The assumption was on vivid display at last week’s Republican National Convention, where nominee Mitt Romney – a former private equity manager – contrasted his resume to President Obama’s. “He took office without the most basic qualification that most Americans have and one that was essential to his task,” Romney said, criticizing Mr. Obama. “He had almost no experience working in a business.”

But it’s simply false to say that a business background is “essential” to succeeding as a president. Since 1900, only five of our 20 presidents had significant business experience when they entered the White House: Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter, and the two Bushes.

...

The best one was surely Hoover, who remains a symbol of presidential ineptitude for his ham-handed reaction to the 1929 stock market crash and ensuing Great Depression. Before that, however, he made millions in the global mining industry. A peripatetic traveler, he moved from Australia to China to England in search of better opportunities.

Full article: http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2012/0906/Not-true-Mitt-Romney-History-shows-business-experience-doesn-t-make-a-good-president

[On the Road]

1. Businessmen All Think They're Economists

Last edited Thu Sep 6, 2012, 05:38 PM - Edit history (1)

and it's rarely true. Most CEOs think a whole economy can be run like an individual business.

What's worse, financiers all think they're businessmen

Romney is probably the worse type of presidential candidate imaginable to attempt to run a large economy, especially one that's still as close to the edge as the US.

[salvorhardin]

3. Whenever you hear a politician conflate federal debt with household, or business, debt

It's a clear signal they don't know what the hell they're talking about, and they should be nowhere near political office

[PDJane]

2. Government is not business.

It's supposed to make business work for all of us; Romney can't even manage to make his businesses work for the workers in his enterprises.

[DinahMoeHum]

4. Romney's not even a businessman, folks. He's a FINANCIER. . .

. . .which is NOT the same thing as building a business.

Romney may be a Mormon, but he ain't William Marriott (founder of Marriott hotel chain).