Aside from his liberal leanings, I find this fact bothersome too. I would have to go back to the depths of my memory bank, but has anyone ever tried this type of leadership jump before?
Secondly, he has had not one, but two chances to keep HRC out of the Senate, which would have given him a chance to prove himself on the national level.
That's exactly what he didn't want...a Senate track record.
If 911 had happened...say in Houston and Mayor White(?) had won local hearts, would that qualify him for president?
http://www.heptune.com/preslist.html#Pre-Presidential
Mayor
Andrew Johnson - Greenville, Tennessee
Grover Cleveland - Buffalo, New York
Calvin Coolidge - Northampton, Massachusetts
Congressman, U.S. House of Representatives
James Madison - Virginia
Andrew Jackson - Tennessee
William Henry Harrison - Northwest Territory, Ohio
John Tyler - Virginia
James Polk - Tennessee
Millard Fillmore - New York
Franklin Pierce - New Hampshire
James Buchanan - Pennsylvania
Abraham Lincoln - Illinois
Andrew Johnson - Tennessee
Rutherford Hayes - Ohio
James Garfield - Ohio
William McKinley - Ohio
John F. Kennedy - Massachusetts
Lyndon Johnson - Texas
Richard Nixon - California
Gerald Ford - Michigan
George Bush - Texas
(Note: This site doesn’t say which ones were sitting members of Congeress, but I’m thinking you’ve got to back to at least McKinley before you find a sitting member winning the Whitehouse)