It's amazing the extent this country fetishizes businesspeople. The business majors I knew in college couldn't hack finance, accounting, engineering etc and needed sticky notes to remind themselves to keep breathing. Business isn't rocket science and a government isn't a business anyway, which might explain why Mitt Romney already tried applying his "business experience" to governing Massachussetts and was 47/50 in job creation. And why big businessmen George W Bush and Herbert Hoover were unmitigated disasters.

Partial NYT excerpt--

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/201...ng-resume/

Quote:Lost in the exhaust of mendacity left in Las Vegas this week, after Donald Trump brought his birther fantasies to town on behalf of Mitt Romney, was a curious statement by the man who has now cinched the Republican nomination for president.

On Tuesday, the same day Trump proved yet again that money and truth, like money and taste, are seldom twined, Romney talked about amending the Constitution to require the president to have business experience. He spoke approvingly of a notion from a store owner who wanted to make anyone who does not have at least three years of business background ineligible to lead the country.

“He said, ‘I’d like to have a provision in the Constitution that in addition to the age of the president and the citizenship of the president and the birth place of the president being set by the Constitution, I’d like it also to say that the president has to spend at least three years working in business before he could become president of the United States,’” said Romney, cheerfully summarizing this rewrite of the founders’ governing blueprint.

Well, there goes Teddy Roosevelt, the writer, rancher and police commissioner, not to mention his distant cousin Franklin Roosevelt, the assistant naval secretary and politician, or Dwight Eisenhower, the career soldier. Ike’s résumé, which includes defeating the world’s most concentrated form of evil in Nazi Germany, would not be not enough to qualify him for the presidency.

Romney has made business experience the main reason to elect him. Without his business past or his projections of business future, there is no there there. But history shows that time in the money trade is more often than not a prelude to a disastrous presidency. The less experience in business, the better the president.

In a scholarly ranking of great presidents, a 2009 survey conducted by C-Span,6 of the 10 best leaders lacked sufficient business experience to be president by Romney’s rumination. This list includes Ronald Reagan, the actor, union activist and corporate spokesman, and John F. Kennedy, the naval officer, writer and politician. There is one failed businessman on the list of great presidents, the haberdasher Harry S. Truman.

By contrast, two 20th century businessmen — George W. Bush, whose sweetheart deal with the Texas Rangers made him a multimillionaire, and Herbert Hoover, who came by his mining fortune honestly — were ranked among the worst presidents ever by the same historians. Bush left the country in a sea of debt and an economic crisis rivaled only by the one that engulfed Hoover.

While we're at it. Let's make it so that you actually have to start the business yourself with your own money and not have daddy hand it down to you!

And silly me...I thought the Constitution was the perfect document. Why would Mitty want to amend it so haphazardly?

The myth of the Businessman-President is better than the myth of a 3 year U.S Senator...

I know we've only had one MBA President, but does anyone know how many MBA Governors there are out there and whether they're successful?

(06-01-2012 09:21 AM)No Bull Wrote:  The myth of the Businessman-President is better than the myth of a 3 year U.S Senator...

Really? Because Harvard MBA Bush was handed a good economy and left a dumpster fire, meanwhile that 3 year US senator at least put out the fire and has 26 straight months of private sector job growth.

not all of us MBAs are idiots

I don't think Romney is an idiot at all. But to argue that his private equity experience lends itself uniquely to governing and creating jobs is ludicrous. If that's true why didn't he break out the magic potion in MA?

Max Power Wrote:It's amazing the extent this country fetishizes lawyers.

FIFY. The most common occupation/educational background for Congresspeople is lawyer. Of course, that doesn't stop a lawyer from blaming the one MBA President in a sea of lawyers for causing all the nation's problems.

(06-01-2012 09:43 AM)BlazerFan11 Wrote:  

Max Power Wrote:It's amazing the extent this country fetishizes lawyers.

FIFY. The most common occupation/educational background for Congresspeople is lawyer. Of course, that doesn't stop a lawyer from blaming the one MBA President in a sea of lawyers for causing all the nation's problems.

I expect politicians to be lawyers. If you're going to make/execute laws, I expect you to have studied them.

(06-01-2012 09:45 AM)AtlanticLeague Wrote:  

(06-01-2012 09:43 AM)BlazerFan11 Wrote:  

Max Power Wrote:It's amazing the extent this country fetishizes lawyers.

FIFY. The most common occupation/educational background for Congresspeople is lawyer. Of course, that doesn't stop a lawyer from blaming the one MBA President in a sea of lawyers for causing all the nation's problems.

I expect politicians to be lawyers. If you're going to make/execute laws, I expect you to have studied them.

Well, you've mostly gotten your wish. How's that working out for you?

Should they also be economists, since they enact policies affecting economics? And doctors, since they enact laws affecting healthcare?

I'm not saying lawyers should be fetishized either, though obviously when you're writing laws you should at least consult a lawyer about how courts will interpret, which doesn't happen often enough. And yes you should consult economists on jobs bills too.

Most of the lawyers in office are Dems and it's the GOP business fetishizers in the WH and Congress who caused this crisis in the first place. Hell yes I'm blaming the one MBA president for our problems. Inherits a balanced budget and good economy (from a lawyer) and immediately gives $T tax cuts for the rich in boom time, spends $4T in a "war on terror", deregulates everything and leaves it to another lawyer to put out his dumpster fire.

(06-01-2012 09:53 AM)Max Power Wrote:  I'm not saying lawyers should be fetishized either, though obviously when you're writing laws you should at least consult a lawyer about how courts will interpret, which doesn't happen often enough. And yes you should consult economists on jobs bills too.

Most of the lawyers in office are Dems and it's the GOP business fetishizers in the WH and Congress who caused this crisis in the first place. Hell yes I'm blaming the one MBA president for our problems. Inherits a balanced budget and good economy (from a lawyer) and immediately gives $T tax cuts for the rich in boom time, spends $4T in a "war on terror", deregulates everything and leaves it to another lawyer to put out his dumpster fire.

You meant disbarred lawer, right?

Who is disbarred?

Clinton

Oh yeah, I forgot. He lied under oath, that's fair.

(06-01-2012 09:40 AM)Max Power Wrote:  I don't think Romney is an idiot at all. But to argue that his private equity experience lends itself uniquely to governing and creating jobs is ludicrous. If that's true why didn't he break out the magic potion in MA?

I don't think he is claiming it is unique. I think he is claiming that the ability to cut red tape and eliminate wasteful overhead right now is important, and his experience in that regard, as compared to ANY politician is superior.

More later, but how does Obama compare to previous presidents in terms of job creation by percentages?

(06-01-2012 10:15 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  

(06-01-2012 09:40 AM)Max Power Wrote:  I don't think Romney is an idiot at all. But to argue that his private equity experience lends itself uniquely to governing and creating jobs is ludicrous. If that's true why didn't he break out the magic potion in MA?

I don't think he is claiming it is unique. I think he is claiming that the ability to cut red tape and eliminate wasteful overhead right now is important, and his experience in that regard, as compared to ANY politician is superior.

Ah, the dem talking points Max is too partisan and ignorant to research.

Since Maxi likes graphs, let's give him one.

(06-01-2012 10:15 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  

(06-01-2012 09:40 AM)Max Power Wrote:  I don't think Romney is an idiot at all. But to argue that his private equity experience lends itself uniquely to governing and creating jobs is ludicrous. If that's true why didn't he break out the magic potion in MA?

I don't think he is claiming it is unique. I think he is claiming that the ability to cut red tape and eliminate wasteful overhead right now is important, and his experience in that regard, as compared to ANY politician is superior.

More later, but how does Obama compare to previous presidents in terms of job creation by percentages?

Depends on what data set you look at. It's difficult to find pure data that hasn't been manipulated by blindly pro- or blindly anti-Obama crowds.

(06-01-2012 10:15 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  

(06-01-2012 09:40 AM)Max Power Wrote:  I don't think Romney is an idiot at all. But to argue that his private equity experience lends itself uniquely to governing and creating jobs is ludicrous. If that's true why didn't he break out the magic potion in MA?

I don't think he is claiming it is unique. I think he is claiming that the ability to cut red tape and eliminate wasteful overhead right now is important, and his experience in that regard, as compared to ANY politician is superior.

But Max's question is still reasonable. Is there a record of MBA (or other business-type) governors being more successful at managing the finance of government, creating jobs, growing economies? I suspect this would be a challenge to measure, but I also suspect that if you could measure it, it wouldn't be terribly meaningful. Business experience helpful? Probably. But I think Romney's suggestion of a constitutional amendment is absurd and naive.

And by the way, a conservative candidate talking about amending the constitution for what amounts to trivia? Holy f'ing crap - we really are doomed.

(06-01-2012 09:03 AM)Max Power Wrote:  It's amazing the extent this country fetishizes businesspeople. The business majors I knew in college couldn't hack finance, accounting, engineering etc and needed sticky notes to remind themselves to keep breathing.

Which is an apt description of you, as I've proven several times.

Quote: Business isn't rocket science

Tell that to Orbital and SpaceX.

Quote:and a government isn't a business anyway,

What exactly were Jefferson's credentials?

Quote:Partial NYT excerpt--

Meaningless, since they're going out of business, AND journalists are self-selected from among those even dumber than you.