Michelle Bachmann

My conservative friends are all excited about Bachmann, who I will admit has done a great job so far in her campaign. (OK, in the interests of full disclosure I will admit that I have just one "conservative friend", but he is real smart and articulate, and so is as good as several would be.)

A review of the 43 men who have served as president shows that we have never elected anybody with as little executive experience as Bachmann. If you take out those in just 3 categories--state governors, secretaries of state, and army generals, you are left with only 14. And if you eliminate the 4 of those 14 who became president only because they were VP's when the Prez either died or resigned, that leaves only 10. Now take out Taft, Bush 1 and Hoover, all of whom had substantial executive experience though not one of the 3 positions stated, and you have only 7. If you count being Pres. of a major university, then Wilson goes out too. That leaves only Adams, Lincoln, Harding, JFK, Nixon, and Obama. Hardly an endorsement for the idea of electing somebody with no executive experience.