Among past presidents twelve had been generals:
George Washington
William H. Harrison
Andrew Jackson
Zachary Taylor
Franklin Pierce
Andrew Johnson
Ulysses S. Grant
Rutherford B. Hayes
James A. Garfield
Chester A. Arthur
Benjamin Harrison
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Seventeen had been governors:
Thomas Jefferson
James Monroe
Martin Van Buren
John Tyler
James K. Polk
Andrew Johnson
Rutherford B. Hayes
Grover Cleveland
William McKinley
Theodore Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
Calvin Coolidge
Franklin Roosevelt
Jimmy Carter
Ronald Reagan
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Sixteen had been senators:
James Monroe
John Quincy Adams
Martin Van Buren
William H. Harrison
John Tyler
James Buchanan
Andrew Johnson
Benjamin Harrison
Warren G. Harding
Harry S. Truman
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard M. Nixon
Barack Obama
None has been CEO of a large company (unless you count Trump). No president had previously been a Supreme Court justice (Taft served on the Supreme Court after being president).
Maybe it just reflects my own prejudices but I think that the record suggests that having been a senator is not a particularly good qualification for the presidency.
This post is in reaction to a comment on a post at OTB about qualifications for the presidency. If you’re going to impose additional qualifications for running for president please, please don’t require them to have held elective office.
Of interest is how many Presidents serviced uniform in their past over and above the list of generals. Some (Lincoln, Tyler) only served in the militia, whereas others (Reagan) did not see action. But a majority of our presidents did answer the call of our country to some degree.
25 were lawyers.
“Lawyer” meant something different until about 1930. It meant you could read and read law.
Three were members of the Skull and Bones fraternity.
Who’s qualified? Answers itself. If you can pull it off, you are qualified.