The Party of “Regular Folks”?
Patrick Ruffini, over at NextRight, contrasts the pedigree of recent Republican presidential candidates with recent Democratict presidential candidates:
- John McCain — probably the most explicitly ambitious of our recent nominees — was first elected to public office at 46 after a career in the military.
- George W. Bush, part of one of the great political families, but “drifted” until later in life; first elected to public office at age 48 after a career in the oil industry
- Bob Dole, the only career politician among recent nominees, was first elected to the Kansas state house at age 27
- George H.W. Bush — successful businessman before winning election to Congress at age 42.
- Ronald Reagan — successful actor before winning his first public office at age 55.
Now look at the Democrats:
- Barack Obama, elected to the Illinois State Senate at age 35, his political ambitions probably date from college
- John Kerry, sailed with Kennedy, ran for Congress at 27, and first elected at 37.
- Al Gore, son of a famous Senator, elected to Congress at 28.
- Bill Clinton, ran for Congress at 28, first elected to public office at 30
- Mike Dukakis, first elected at 29.
- Walter Mondale, campaign manager for Hubert Humphrey at 20, appointed to fill a vacancy at 32.
- Jimmy Carter, peanut farmer, was first elected to the Georgia State Senate at 38. He is probably the last truly normal person the Democrats have nominated.
The contrast between the life experience of our Republican and Democratic political icons is pretty stark. Democrats got their start in politics an average of a decade earlier than the Republicans, winning their first elective office at 33 vs. 44 for the GOP. Most of the Republicans on the list had significant experience in the private sector before entering politics, versus just one Democrat — Jimmy Carter.
I’m not sure I buy his conclusion that this makes the Republican’s the party of “regular people,” but the bullet points do make an interesting contrast.