Senators as Presidents.

[kentuck]

There is a reason Senators so seldom get elected to the highest office in the land. They have a record of votes they must defend. And seldom are the votes as black and white as they may seem.

Barack Obama was the first Senator elected to the Presidency since 1968, if we consider LBJ a previous Senator rather than a succeeding Vice President. Otherwise, he was the first Senator since JFK.

But the Senate is an elite club. They are really not in touch with average Americans. Although Barack Obama was only in the Senate for four years, he managed to create a network where he got huge donations from the health industry and the big banks. He seemed to believe that power was connected to money moreso than to the people's will. Otherwise, how do we explain his appointment of Tim Geithner and Larry Summers to lead his economic team? How do we account for his subservience to Wall Street?

He believes in the Senate and the legislative process. He may be from Chicago but he is also a man of the Senate. He actually believes in bipartisanship and working at a slower pace than the House might work or even the governors of the states might work. Being a former Senator has not helped him in his job as President.

[FLAprogressive]

1. it's 17 dimensional chess.

[DJ13]

3. I misread that as "chest"

[FLAprogressive]

4. lol!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

11. Did this really happen??? This is really

hairy in some places... others not so much.

[pissedoff01]

5. Yep. Obama will conquer Afghanistan - in World of Warcraft

[Arkana]

2. Obama jumped as quickly as he did from the Senate to the Presidency

in large part due to the fact that he'd only been a Senator for a few years.

David Plouffe in "The Audacity to Win" describes it as "senatoritis". You accumulate a long trail of votes, more and more things you have to explain and account for, and it boxes your campaign in.

[JohnnyLib2]

6. Agreed.

[HughMoran]

7. Yep - 3 years does not give one 'senatoritis'

I'm not buying this argument at all.

[Arkana]

13. I think you may have misunderstood.

I'm saying Obama AVOIDED getting senatoritis. That's why, I think, he didn't wait until 2012 or 2016--because by then, it's set in.

[HughMoran]

14. Yeah, I got it

I wasn't being sarcastic :)

(I know it's so hard to tell as 90% of the replies here are)

[Captain Hilts]

8. Obama barely had a voting record, that's why Tom Daschle told him to run. nt

[tblue]

9. There's a reason why "executive" experience (governorship, for example)

is beneficial for a president. But O's a quick study, so I am hopeful.

[unblock]

10. actually, 1972

unless by 1968 you meant to refer to the first election only, not the re-election.

[msongs]

12. bipartisan = repubs/dems have mostly shared values and there is no real difference tween em nt