An odd question has been popping up lately on the network news channels and discussion shows. Is Barack Obama qualified to become President considering he is only a one term Senator. Let’s take a page out of the Republican playbook, shall we? We’ll answer the question about Obama’s fitness to become President despite lack of experience by looking at what kind of qualifications George W. Bush had to become President.
George W. Bush was by his own admission and report cards a mediocre student throughout his academic career. Despite being a C student in elementary through high school, however, George W. Bush still found himself being accepted by Yale University. While somewhere in America a poor kid with great grades had to forget his or her dreams of Yale, George W. Bush graduated magna cum laude with a double major: Partying and Drinking. Meanwhile, Barack Obama rose from a solid middle class existence to earn his way into the Ivy League.
George W. Bush then went on to strengthen the skills he would need as America’s future Commander-in-Chief by using his family’s political connections to get him out Vietnam. As well all know, even a cushy job with the Texas National Guard proved to be a bit more than George’s delicate condition could handle so he wrangled a job serving America while that poor kid he beat out of a spot in Yale was probably saving lives in Vietnam by wrangling a job helping a racist Alabama Republican run an election.
Despite technically being AWOL, George W. Bush next proved his qualifications to direct America’s economy by showing his prowess as a businessman. Fresh with a bought and paid for MBA degree, Bush set his sights on one of the surest things in American business during the 20th century: oil in Texas. The name of George W. Bush’s oil company may quite possibly be the finest example of irony in the history of the American oil industry: Arbusto. Yes, George W. Bush’s entry into the business that made his family a zillionaire along with hundreds of thousands of others resulted in a bust of monumental proportions. Perhaps only someone of George W. Bush’s acumen could have failed to strike oil and be so mismanaged that a really successful company like Harken Energy would actually want to buy it. Of course, the fact that George W. Bush’s dad had just become Vice President and was in the position of influencing the direction of lucrative contracts might have had something to do with that.
George W. Bush continued to prove he was ill-equipped to be put in charge of making economic decisions when he became a part owner of the Texas Rangers. He is, of course, mostly remembered for trading Sammy Sosa just a few years before Sosa hit over 120 home runs in just two years. What he is less remembered for is making a nifty 15 million dollar windfall when he sold his interest. While the Texas Rangers remain just about the only team in baseball not to make it to the World Series since Bush got involved, the legacy of this disastrous meeting of the mindless was that Dubya used his earnings to finance a run for the Governorship of Texas.
Texas likes to advertise itself as being like a whole other country. Well, we can certainly wish, can’t we? If only Texas had been another country, the US could have been spared Bush’s leadership. I mean it’s one thing if a bunch of nutjobs want to hand over their state to a man with absolutely no qualifications; Texas isn’t known for producing geniuses, after all. (Except for Tom Landry, I guess.) Why Texans wanted to make George Bush their Governor can only be answered with by asking why such a large minority of Americans wanted him to be President. My theory still rests upon the idea that millions thought they were voting for his dad.
At least the Texans can be forgiven. Everybody knows Texas politics is about as crooked as it gets but America as a whole could look to what Bush accomplished in Texas, whereas the Texans only had his business failures by which to judge. While Bush likes to tout his success at reforming the education system and tort reform, the lasting legacy of Bush’s leadership of Texas is remarkably similar to what he has done as President. Namely, appointing a string of unqualified people to positions of power and engaging in one sweetheart deal after another to further line the coffers of his biggest campaign contributors. And let’s not forget that one of his proudest accomplishments was to allow almost any Texan to legally carry a concealed weapon. As if Texans weren’t already dangerous enough.
So, let’s take a look at the qualifications of George W. Bush to become President. A one term Governor of Texas. A string of failures in the business world. An admitted recovering alcoholic which means-if you buy that whole crapload about alcoholism being a disease-that every single day the President of the United States fight consciously fight the urger to go on a bender resulting in who knows what kind of devastation. On the other hand, Barack Obama was an Illinois State Senator for eight years and has been a US Senator since 2005. In other words, without any qualifications, George W. Bush sought to become the chief executive first of a large state and then the entire country, while Barack Obama has worked in the legislative realm in which people who say no to you don’t get fired. Barack Obama is learning the process of government, while George Bush learned only that people ask high how when you say jump.
So, to those who would say that Barack Obama doesn’t have enough experience or is not qualified to be President the only possible response one can give is that if George W. Bush had the right to be elected President, then Barack Obama has the right to be elected God. One thing is crystal clear: Barack Obama could not possibly do any worse than George W. Bush. Of course, my youngest son’s pet hamster couldn’t do any worse than President Bush.
The really strange thing about all this talk of experience and qualifications is that George W. Bush was the most unqualified man ever to become President and promptly set about proving it. On the other hand, his father was one of the most qualified men to become President…and still managed to be a horrible leader.
