Size isn't everything

The attacks on Sarah Palin continue and on many fronts. One is that she is only the Governor of Alaska, a state with a tiny population. Interestingly the 2007 estimated population for Alaska was a minuscule 683,478 whilst the population of Joe Biden's Delaware was an enormous 864,764. Maybe Hillary Clinton, New York state population 19,297,729 has something else to feel aggrieved about.

Mind you on a size is all basis Rick Perry the Governor of Texas, population 23,904,380, and Arnold Schwarzenegger the Governor of California, population 36,553,215, might have even more to boast about.


I know that I am mixing Senators Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden with Governors but there is a good reason. US Presidents have almost always had executive experience before serving as President. In fact the only US President since the start of the Second World War not to have been, prior to serving as President, either a State Governor, the Vice President or a Senior US General was John F. Kennedy. And even JFK had seven years in the House and eight years in the Senate before being elected President.

Here's the list:
Franklin Roosevelt - Assistant United States Secretary of Navy, Governor of New York
Harry Truman - Vice President of the United States
Dwight Eisenhower - General of the Army (United States) (Supreme Allied Commander, Army Chief of Staff)
John F. Kennedy - No Previous Executive Experience, United States House of Representatives (1946-52) & United States Senate (1952-60)
Lyndon Johnson - Vice President of the United States
Richard Nixon- Vice President of the United States
Gerald Ford - Vice President of the United States
Jimmy Carter - Governor of Georgia
Ronald Reagan - Governor of California & President of the Screen Actors Guild
George H. W. Bush - Vice President of the United States & Director of Central Intelligence Agency
Bill Clinton - Attorney General of Arkansas, Governor of Arkansas
George W. Bush - Governor of Texas

I do not expect the BBC to be covering either of these points any time soon.