Historical Comparison of Experience for Past Presidents and Vice Presidents

OK -- here is the question everyone is asking: Does experience matter?


Thinking about the issue, I decided to look backward and compare the current candidates to all of the previous Presidents and VPs. Using trusty wikipedia, I looked at the experience of every President and VP to serve in the US since its founding.

The Bottom Line: Candidate Palin is tied for being the least experienced candidate of all time and while Barack Obama has below average experience, he has more experience than 10 of our previous Presidents including our current one.

Methodology: This evaluation looks at three key areas of comparable experience where ALL previous executives are likely to have experience: military command, federal and state-wide office as reported in wikipedia. Local office was not included because it is not apples to apples in comparison; for example, is being mayor the equivalent of county commissioner or a local judge? The Local data is incomplete and not comparable and more importantly, there is more than enough structured data - aka comparable experience for military command, federal office and state-wide office - to make a valuable comparison. If you want to play with the data yourself, or even add in the Local experience, here is the raw data to do so.

Here are the key findings for President:

• The average President had 18-years experience in military command or federal/state-wide office. John McCain, with 30-years, has 66% more experience than average and Barack Obama, with 12-years, has 33% less experience than average.
• The President's closest in profile to Barack Obama are Abraham Lincoln and Calvin Coolidge.
• The President's closest in profile to John McCain are James Buchanan and James Polk (this was a relatively subjective comparison because, interestingly, no President ever served more than 12 years in the US Senate).
• There have been eight Presidents with less than 10 years experience including Woodrow Wilson with just four as Governor and Grover Clevland with just two as Governor (before his first term as President).
• Barack Obama has twice as much experience today than George Bush had on day one of his term as President and Joe Biden has twice as much experience as Dick Cheney on day one of his term as VP.

Here are the key findings for Vice President:

• At 17 years, the average Vice President's experience in military command and federal/state-wide office is not too far off the Presidents' (18). Sarah Palin, with 2-years, has 89% less experience than average and Joe Biden, with 36 years, has 112% more experience than average (2x+).
• Interstingly, wikipedia did not have much information about military service for the VPs; I am not sure if this is because there is no military service or that the postings are not complete.
• The VP's closest in profile to Sarah Palin are Spiro Agnew, Chestur Arthur and George Dallas .
• The VP's closest in profile to Joe Biden are William King, Charles Curtis and Alben Barkley.
• There have been 11 VPs with less than 10 years experience and six VPs with more than 30 years experience.
• No VP has served longer in the Senate than Joe Biden.
• 11 VPs have ascended to the VP slot after less than 5-years as Governor.
• Of the VPs that Sarah Palin is 'tied' with 2-years experience, Chester Arthur ascended to the Presidency and Spiro Agnew would have if not for his own issues. So, VP Palin turning into President Palin might not be such a stretch

So what does all this mean? Probably that experience in military command or in federal/state-wide office does in fact matter.