5 Inexperienced U.S. Presidents
Many candidates have had little elected experience prior to becoming president
1. Abraham Lincoln—Lincoln spent eight years in the Illinois Legislature but only one term in the House of Representatives and lost his U.S. Senate campaign in 1858.
2. Woodrow Wilson—He had served as New Jersey's governor for two years when he was elected president in 1912.
3. George W. Bush—He served as governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before being sworn in as president in January of 2001.
4. Theodore Roosevelt—Roosevelt was governor of New York from 1898 to 1900 and served six months as vice president before becoming president after William McKinley was shot.
5. Franklin Delano Roosevelt—His political experience prior to the presidency included one term as a state senator and a stint as governor of New York from 1929 to 1932.
Reader Comments
Not experienced?
4 out of the 5 above WERE at least governors. If you're the governor, you've got to be able to run the state, create a budget, etc. I'd call that experience. I'd say being a governor gives one more experience than being a senator. Senators don't RUN anything.
presidents with experience
I can't say very many good things about Richard M Nixon or Lyndon Johnson, who had plenty of experience before becoming President, yet both made serious mistakes regarding the Vietnam War, and as far as I am concerned both were crooks!
The Roosevelts...
Do you think TR's executive experience as a NYC Police Commissioner and as military leader with combat experience along with being a published historian and naturalist might matter?
Do You think FDR executive experience as a wartime Assistant Secretary of the Navy (essentially a modern DepSecDef) might count for something?
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