Neither Thomas Jefferson nor Abraham Lincoln ever ran much of anything before gaining the presidency.
Yet they were both successful self made men before politics.
Both Jefferson and Lincoln were extraordinarily brilliant men elected at unusual moments in our nation’s history under a system that actually has changed significantly even since the time of Lincoln.
That said, I don’t know why the writer is so enthralled with Portman, about whom it’s hard to remember anything, and who strikes me as a bland and totally non-executive person.
I think experience, after the disaster of Obama the inexperienced and unable-to-learn (because he doesn’t think he needs to), we’re going to need someone with serious executive experience, and that’s one thing governors are good for.
Bush was an excellent Florida governor, but I don’t think he has much chance just because of his name. Walker might be good, although I don’t think he’s a very personable campaigner. If Palin hadn’t resigned her governorship, she would have been good. And, fortunately, I think Christie is toast because of his stupid stunts with the Port Authority punishing his enemies. You never hear him even mentioned anymore by the GOP-e.
Perhaps Jindal should be considered. There’s also my governer, Rick Scott, who has done well overall economically (while I don’t like his accomodations to Obamacare and Common Core), but is not at all a national campaign type. We also have Susanna Martinez, but I don’t know a thing about how she’s governed NM, and Nikki Haley, who is a mixed bag, from what I’ve heard from people in SC.
The author did make one good point, which is that the GOP shouldn’t be desperate to get a “minority” (a misnomer if there ever was one) or a woman as a candidate, because the Dems own that demographic and in the eyes of the press, which essentially does the publicity for the Dems, any GOP candidate automatically gives up their minority or female status simply by being Republican and will get no positive bounce for it.
Which brings us to a final thing: Americans really don’t care about competence. Obama was elected because he was a celebrity, created by the liberal press, and crazy enough on his own to believe every gushing word the press wrote about him simply because he was part black and had an exotic foreign Muslim and leftist background. There is a possibility that after experiencing the disaster created by Obama, people might want somebody more substantial next time, but I don’t have a lot of confidence in that. Still, it’s what we need: somebody who knows what he or she is doing.
Jefferson was governor of Virginia.