The question at hand: Can someone who is not a career politician run for and win the presidential election?
I think that people are tired of politicians, and I think that the American people would choose to elect a prominent businessman or a powerful public figure to the presidency without them having much political experience.
I am however skeptical that someone without very much political experience can run a successful campaign regardless of how experienced their campaign manager is, or how successful they have been in other aspects of life.
Herman Cain is the perfect example.
Our country is currently in economic shambles (say what you want, but it’s in shambles), so who better to take on the task of fixing everything than a self-made businessman? Cain has been on numerous executive boards of companies and has been successful at vitually every company he has taken up residence with, so the natural progression (sarcasm) would be to take on the debt of an entire country and see what he could do with that.
In an ideal world this would be perfect. The man with the supreme gift of knowing how economics work and knowing how to balance a budget would finally be able to take the reigns of the most powerful economy in the world, and bring us back to economic stability. It sounds perfect. I bought into it for a little bit.
And so did everybody else. Cain was racing up the charts in the GOP primary race, and was even in the lead for a couple of weeks. He was the Republican Wonderboy who could do no wrong.
That is until the reality of the situation started to come about. Allegation after allegation began to come to light of sexual harassment from former coworkers and employees of Cain.
What would the seasoned politician do in the situation (unless your name is Wiener)? Be honest about it, say it was from a long time ago, and ask your constituents and the voters for forgiveness.
What did Cain do? He lied about it of course.
TOTAL rookie move…
Not long after he lied about the allegations his campaign began slipping through his fingers. He began losing support at just as rapid of a rate as he had gained it. I believe that if he would’ve handled the situation honestly he would have lost far less support. He might not have had any chance to win after the sexual harassment came to light, but the transparency in his response would’ve at least given this voter a second thought into his candidacy.
Donald Trump could be used as another example in this scenario, but I am convinced his supposed presidential bid was just a way to stir things up. But if he was serious about being a candidate, then the things that he said show further that a businessman, used to saying what he wants when he wants, probably won’t be able to keep his mouth shut long enough to be considered a legitimate candidate.
I think that a non-politician could be good for the economy, provided they have a long-standing track record of economic successes, and that if the right one comes along they have a great shot at getting elected. But let’s wait and see how Italy’s coalition of businessmen and professors do running the land of Ferraris and Calcio before we pass any further judgment.
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