Never Been Someone So Qualified for the Presidency?
President Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton today and said: “I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office.” I’m as much of a Hillary supporter as the next left-of-center law professor in line but . . . really? Hillary Rodham Clinton is — without a doubt — qualified to serve as president. But by no measure will she be the most qualified person ever to occupy the White House.
Who has been better qualified than Hillary? George Washington’s pre-presidential credentials weren’t shabby (delegate to the First Continental Congress; commander-in-chief of the Continental Army; president of the Constitutional Convention), but arguably he lacked foreign policy experience. The next five presidents, however, all have Hillary beat. John Adams combined legislative experience (delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses) with diplomatic experience (commissioner to France; ambassador to Holland and Great Britain), and as a drafter of the Massachusetts Constitution he had state government experience too. (Not to mention eight years as vice president.) Thomas Jefferson served as secretary of state for longer than Hillary, and he’d been a state legislator, delegate to the Second Continental Congress and Confederation Congress, governor of Virginia, minister to France, and vice president. James Madison was likewise a state legislator, delegate to the Confederation Congress, and secretary of state (and a member of the House of Representatives in between). James Monroe was a state legislator, delegate to the Confederation Congress, U.S. senator, minister to France and the United Kingdom, governor of Virginia, secretary of state, and secretary of war. And John Quincy Adams had been minister to the Netherlands, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, and Britain, a state senator, U.S. senator, and secretary of state, as well as a professor at Harvard. (Per William F. Buckley Jr.’s statement that he’d “rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University”: If only Boston had a telephone directory at the time, John Quincy Adams would have governed under either scenario.)
Andrew Jackson’s pre-presidential resume had the same hole as Washington’s (no foreign policy experience, although he had been a congressman, senator, military governor of Florida, and judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court, in addition to his accomplishments as a general in the War of 1812). Martin Van Buren served (like Hillary) as senator from New York and secretary of state, and he’d also been a state senator, governor, minister to the United Kingdom, and vice president. William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and James K. Polk arrived at the White House with impressive pre-presidential records as well. Indeed, the first president who was arguably less qualified than Hillary was the 12th president, Zachary Taylor (a former general and war hero, but with little governmental experience beyond that).
Fast-forwarding to the 20th century, quite a few presidents would top Hillary in the credentials game. William Howard Taft had served as solicitor general, Sixth Circuit judge, governor-general of the Philippines, provisional governor of Cuba, and secretary of war. (He was also chief justice of the Supreme Court, but that was after his presidential term.) Richard Nixon never held an official diplomatic post before his presidency, but he managed a broad foreign policy portfolio for eight years as vice president in the Eisenhower administration (and served as a congressman and senator before that). And George H.W. Bush, perhaps the best qualified among modern-day presidents, had been a congressman, ambassador to the United Nations, envoy to China, and director of the CIA, in addition to eight years as vice president. He beats Hillary by a landslide.
None of this is to deny the fact that Hillary Clinton is much better qualified for the presidency than many of her predecessors (Barack Obama, for one). But we are deceiving ourselves if we believe that there has never been someone so qualified to hold the office. The most way can say is that she would be the first president who had called 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue home before taking office. Unless one counts Grover Cleveland — the second time around.
