No he hasn't done a disastrous job. I doubt Votaire could make sense of Louisiana finances. Louisiana's problems come primarily from declining oil revenue and an unwillingness to raises taxes. This is as it should be. Revenues decrease, so should spending. I actually look at this as a plus for Jindal. Rand Paul hasn't had executive experience, Jindal has. Legislators with no executive experience are unprepared for the responsibilities of the Chief Executive.
Even if that were the case, which it isn't, why Ben Carson ahead of Paul? Ben Carson has 'zero' political experience. This idea that Presidents need prior executive experience to be a good President is nonsense claptrap that's the result of those who push for an imperial-style presidency. We've had disastrous Presidents with prior executive experience, and we've had very effective presidents with absolutely no prior executive experience. Here's a list of Presidents with no prior executive experience that ended up being either very effective or highly-lauded/popular presidents: *Nixon *LBJ *Kennedy *Ike *Truman *Taft *Garfield *Grant *Lincoln *Jackson *Madison *Adams *Washington On the other hand... Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush were both former governors. ----------------------------------- "Executive experience" is not a pre-requisite for understanding the Constitution, the Presidential oath of office, and the good judgement to properly execute the laws of the United States consistent with that oath and understanding of the Constitution. I'll take those qualities over a mediocre governor every single day of the week.
LBJ on this list? He Governed during a time where this country was more divided than it had been since the Civil War. Only BHO has been worse about dividing this country, and as we all know, he has gone out of his way to do so. Can't tell you the last time anyone referred to LBJ as being "very effective" or "highly lauded" unless the efficiency he showed in getting the "Great Society" launched. Still don't see much "great" in it. I agree with Paul on a lot of what he stands for and will support him over the Socialist Party candidate with no reservations. I especially like him having the gonads to go into the black communities with his message. A message that has not been communicated to those communities in the past by Republicans. I think there is some potential to move some of those people. All he has to do is ask them to look around their communities and ask themselves "is this as good as it gets?" and persuade them that the Democratic social programs create a very low ceiling for people, destroying the virtues of self-reliance and personal responsibility along the way, the very virtues that ALL successful people possess. Very few of them see any upside to their lives. Makes them angry, combative, unsociable. Of course vouchers would give them a way out of the lousy inner city schools. Democrats choose the labor unions OVER the voucher programs. And they care about blacks, or is it the votes they care about? On foreign policy, I get his reluctance to jump into any armed conflict around the world, and him being much more selective when we do. Lord everyone knows we have put our soldiers in harms way more often that we should have, hindsight tells us that. I just think there is a fine line between having a policy that deploys US troops less frequently and with more forethought, and the perception that might give to some of our adversaries. Look no farther than the spineless weenie we have in the Oval Office today, and see the perception that he projected, cancelling the Eastern Europe missile shield that was once promised to them, sashaying around the world apologizing to anyone and everyone that we might have offended some way at some time, drawing red lines in the sand, reducing our military capability, new weapons systems, etc. All of this has sent a signal to our enemies of weakness. If Paul is not careful, I believe he might send them the same signal.
We should not have overthrown the elected Iranian prime minister in 1953. I doubt that an apology makes up for that. Instead of apologizing, don't frack with other countries' governments. (That's "frack" in the Battlestar Galactica meaning of the word.)
