No D.C. experience, no problem, new poll indicates
Washington (CNN) –– Congressional experience isn't the political asset it once was for presidential hopefuls, according to a new national poll.
Instead, a Pew Research Center survey released Monday indicates that serving as a governor may be a better training ground for White House contenders.
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According to the poll, 44% of Americans say that serving as a governor better prepares someone to be president, with an equal amount saying serving in Congress is the better preparation. That's a dramatic change from 1987, when by a three-to-one margin Americans said serving in Congress rather than as a governor was the best preparation for being president. Even seven years ago, by at 55%-24% margin, the public said Congress was a better place to get prepared for higher office.
In a separate question which tested whether 16 traits and characteristics would make someone more or less likely to support a candidate for president, a third say they'd be more likely to support a presidential candidate with experience as a governor, compared to only 19% who say they'd be more likely to support a candidate with "many years" of experience as an elected official in Washington.
The 19% who say they'd be more likely to support a presidential contender with lots of Washington experience was down from 35% just seven years ago.
In 2008 Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S senator since John F. Kennedy in 1960 to win election to the White House. But Obama had only served in the Senate for four years before winning the presidency. Before his 2004 election to the Senate, Obama was a state lawmaker in Illinois.
Obama's two immediate predecessors, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, were sitting governors when they were elected president.
The Pew poll indicates that military service remains the most valuable asset for a presidential hopeful among the 16 traits and characteristics. Forty-three percent of those questioned say they would be more likely to back a presidential candidate with military experience.
At the other end of the spectrum, not believing in God and never having held any elective office are seen as the most negative traits.
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The Pew Research Center poll was conducted April 23-27, with 1,501 adults nationwide questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
CNN Political Editor Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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Wake Up People...No hatred for President Obama here or amongst my fellow conservatives. Just an immense disgust for his policies, ideology, and his management style. Of course we want him out of office, not because he is black but because of his agenda. If you're going to wake up, smell the coffee, not your bias.
Tommy G wrote:
If that's the case then Chris Christie shouldn't even be a contender. Jersey' bond rating has been downgraded twice since he's been in office and unemployment is high.
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Their massive pension debt causes this thanks to the Democrats that have been running the state and giving the unions everything they wanted in exchange for their support. The same story in several other Democrat run states across the country. Lesson is, if you want a debt ridden near bankrupt state, elect a Democrat to lead it.
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If you took the time to look at the facts, you will find that the pension debt is a result of bad investments on the part of pension fund managers, who like many states lost their shirts during the Wall Street Crisis. Since that time, the state has not kept up its' payment schedule.
In other words, the Christie administration had stopped paying into the fund. They couldn't afford payments because of the large tax cuts that he enacted, which has resulted in a series of credit downgrades that only cot NJ taxpayers even more.
Sniffit
" Cutting a dime out of a $3.5 trillion budget gets them squealing about starving kids, old and poor people.'
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Completely and utterly divorced from reality and the numbers. Obama has decreased the deficit by over $900B since taking office and it has gone down at the fastest rate in 60 years. Anyone claiming his spending is out of control is either living in an entirely alternate universe or is just knowingly lying to push a false talking point.
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Riiiiight... which is why Obama ran up $8 TRILLION in debt in 6 years.
The reduction in the yearly deficit is thanks to trillions in tax hikes and those 21 new Obamacare taxes. Please post the list of Obama-Democrat spending cuts to prove your point. It should not take long to type nothing in.
"Dems just have bad ideals on most issues just listen to what the real experts think about the plans and goals after they dream them up it always sounds good to to the ear but will fail in time . Thats what the nonbias experts say and we should be incline to believe them !"
Oh really? Haha. Name the issue and the expert and state their opinion. Ready? Go.
*crickets*
The Presidency of the United States is no place for On the job training. It takes a seasoned statesman or woman to understand the intricacies of national and international negotiating and diplomacy. The give and take is a full function of democracy. The absence of this function is called dictatorship at worst and inexperience or incompetence at best. The current President is exhibit "A", of a pure politician with little to no experience in the military, legislation, negotiation or foreign policy. And the proof are his many failings which are too many to detail here. The road to perdition is paved with good intentions and there is no substitute for experience. Amateurs should never be trusted with the most important job in the world.
"which is why Obama ran up $8 TRILLION in debt in 6 years."
And let's look at the policies and problems that actually caused the increased debt: Bush tax cuts, unfunded Iraq war, unfunded Afghanistan war, the Great Recession and the unemployment and reduced revenue it caused, unfunded Medicare Part D.
But yeah, you go on believing that all that matters is who was in the WH at the time the debt accrued, versus whose POLICIES actually caused it to accrue. Whatever helps you sleep at night.
@Don
Experience in spending money we don't have is experience we don't need in Washington. Democrats think there is no limit to what this country can tax, borrow and spend. Cutting a dime out of a $3.5 trillion budget gets them squealing about starving kids, old and poor people.
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Your so Right , who needs education , starving kids , old and poor people need to get work or die.
Lefties ,squealing about clean water and air , whats next , safe food and drugs .
We need leaders with absolutely no experience and the less education the better ! It's all about the common sense moral conservative values .
Louie Gohmert / Michele Bachmann
Ken and Barbie of political inelegance 2016
No D.C. experience, no problem, new poll indicates
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Why did they need a new poll for this? I thought it was pretty well proven and accepted when Obama got elected in 2008. Why would we need an experienced, successful person in the White House when we could have a cool dude that gave good teleprompter speeches and promised we could have everything at no cost. Now we are finding out the high cost of that mistake, which was repeated in 2012.
I was glad to see military service is still the top valued trait of a potential potus. Gov. or serving in congress are on the same level for me but military service should be required to be the potus.
" promised we could have everything at no cost""
Never. Not once. But that's ok, you keep on fabricating that alternate reality for yourself.
Republican or Democrat, the president is mainly a mouthpiece for the big corporate interests. This is true of most of our supposed "representatives" in Washington, DC. They don't really represent you unless you own a big corporation and have a LOT of money.
Sniffit
"which is why Obama ran up $8 TRILLION in debt in 6 years."
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And let's look at the policies and problems that actually caused the increased debt: Bush tax cuts, unfunded Iraq war, unfunded Afghanistan war, the Great Recession and the unemployment and reduced revenue it caused, unfunded Medicare Part D.
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What the heck are you talking about?! That debt was the result of many trillion dollar yearly deficits SINCE OBAMA TOOK OFFICE. None of it had anything to do with the BS you spew.
BTW, Obama CONTINUED the Bush tax cuts! And most are still being continued today! They were tax cuts for people that actually paid taxes. And even with these lower rates, thanks to a healthy and growing economy (something Obama knows nothing about), federal taxes taken in INCREASED.
Obama only knows how to take and destroy, not build and grow. His policies have lead to economic stagnation and everything he does just adds to the problem.
You mean one of those well governed red states, that misappropriated obamacare funds to help balance their budget, nothing says sustainability quite like the gop lies and tricks on their citizenry . You guys crack me up absolutely refuse to see what's painfully obvious to the mature working adults, if your nit rich, you have no reason to vote Republican.
Cutting down the ridiculous claims by the rwnj, like shooting fish in a barrel, too easy, yet they believe, peter pan anyone?
Can somebody please list all of the spending cuts Democrats are for and the yearly amounts? I've never actually seen a list with amounts.
smith
I was glad to see military service is still the top valued trait of a potential potus. Gov. or serving in congress are on the same level for me but military service should be required to be the potus.
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No, they shouldn't. Do you really want everyone sitting in the Oval Office to be a former military officer? Our government is supposed to be run by civilians, not the military. It makes no difference whether or not they are retired, or not. It would not be a good thing to require everyone to be a former enlistee.
It's not like our president is good at anything, sure come on in. Let's see how bad we can screw this country with liberal garbage policies.
"What the heck are you talking about?! That debt was the result of many trillion dollar yearly deficits SINCE OBAMA TOOK OFFICE. None of it had anything to do with the BS you spew.
BTW, Obama CONTINUED the Bush tax cuts! And most are still being continued today! They were tax cuts for people that actually paid taxes. And even with these lower rates, thanks to a healthy and growing economy (something Obama knows nothing about), federal taxes taken in INCREASED.
Obama only knows how to take and destroy, not build and grow. His policies have lead to economic stagnation and everything he does just adds to the problem."
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It was predicted that we could see annual deficits in excess of a trillion dollars within a decade by someone on Bush's own staff. It's what lead to Cheney's famous claim about "deficits don't matter."
Keep in mind... a Community Organizer's job is to incite unrest... That is this failures only job in life... oh wait... it's voluntary.
@Donna –
Sniffit
"which is why Obama ran up $8 TRILLION in debt in 6 years."
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And let's look at the policies and problems that actually caused the increased debt: Bush tax cuts, unfunded Iraq war, unfunded Afghanistan war, the Great Recession and the unemployment and reduced revenue it caused, unfunded Medicare Part D.
-
What the heck are you talking about?! That debt was the result of many trillion dollar yearly deficits SINCE OBAMA TOOK OFFICE. None of it had anything to do with the BS you spew.
BTW, Obama CONTINUED the Bush tax cuts! And most are still being continued today! They were tax cuts for people that actually paid taxes. And even with these lower rates, thanks to a healthy and growing economy (something Obama knows nothing about), federal taxes taken in INCREASED.
Obama only knows how to take and destroy, not build and grow. His policies have lead to economic stagnation and everything he does just adds to the problem.
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And therein lies the problem with the GOP voter.. they never ask why? and have no understanding of Federal workings nor the impact of cause and effect. If you have event the simplest understanding of Federal budgets you'd know that MOST of the increase in Debt is due to having to pay for things CONGRESS has already approved for funding.. the deficit adds to that.. but hey.. let's ignore that ALL appropriations start in the House (by law) and require their approval, so the TRILLION dollar deficits have BEEN APPROVED BY THE GOP – yet, you rail on Obama's policies. Typical misguided and ill-informed rant.
Who needs experience anymore. All the laws are written by corporations and special interest groups. Most "lawmakers" wouldn't know how to write a solid bill for the American people if it hit them upside the head!!
Everyone forgets about the Congress of '07 when the spending started... who had the majority on both sides?
@Garth – Everyone forgets about the Congress of '07 when the spending started... who had the majority on both sides?
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Those same folks conveniently forget who had "both sides" for the prior 6 yrs..
"Everyone forgets about the Congress of '07 when the spending started... who had the majority on both sides?
Wrong. It's when the spending finally started to get put back on the books, because Dubya and his buddies were found to have been keeping things like Iraq and Afghanistan out of the accounting. The policies that required the spending were already in place and were enacted under a GOP congress and POTUS.
"Obama CONTINUED the Bush tax cuts! "
More dishonest claptrap. They were continued because the GOP/Teatrolls held unemployment insurance, the new START treaty and several other important, must-pass pieces of legislation hostage during November and December of 2010 in order to force us to pay the ransom of extending the Bush tax cuts. They brought gov't to a standstill yet again in order to demand that they get their way, right as the Bush tax cuts were set to expire AS WRITTEN AND AS PROMISED BY THE GOP/TEATROLLS WHEN THEY ENACTED THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE.