On Sunday, I posted a column in which I suggested that the election was, in its essence, just a very public job interview process. I identified three criteria that an employer would consider in an interview: job experience; personal skills; and business plan (ideology).
For today’s purposes, I’m going to ignore ideology and focus exclusively on the other two criteria. I would grade the candidates as follows:
Resume Quality
Kasich: A. Lengthy legislative experience; successful governor of a purple state.
Clinton: A. First Lady; Senator; executive and international experience as Secretary of State.
Christie: B. Reasonably successful governor of a blue state.
Bush: B. Experience is similar to Christie’s; scores lower because the GOP dominated the Florida Legislature.
Sanders: B. Senator; has executive experience in Burlington.
Rubio: C. One-term Senator with experience at the state level, but has never run anything.
Cruz: C. Same as Rubio.
Trump: F. Cutting deals for developments with local governments is not analogous to dealing with Nancy Pelosi, let alone Putin.
Personal Qualities
No one gets an A here.
Kasich: B. Intelligent and compassionate, if a bit whiny.
Clinton: B. Masters policy details easily; mostly good people skills; is used to intense scrutiny.
Bush: B. Qualities that make him a lousy candidate (temperance, thoughtfulness) would help him as President.
Sanders: C. Open and honest and has little ego, but a bit of a curmudgeon. Sees the world in overly simple terms.
Rubio: C. Impressive political skills, but lacks gravitas at this point in his career.
Christie: D. Shouting at teachers may play in New Jersey, but not in the country as a whole.
Cruz: F. Obvious intellectual abilities, but the most personally disagreeable candidate within my memory. Radiates ambition, negativity, and anger. Even his ideological allies in Washington view him as a user.
Trump: F. Every day with him as President would be a roller coaster ride. You could imagine him pushing the button just because Putin said something to piss him off.
You can draw your own conclusions.