Skills

On Morning Joe today they were bemoaning the fact that people would consider outsiders like Trump and Oprah as presidents. Their concern is caused by two main reasons. The first can be illustrated by Robert Mcnamara. He was the President of Ford Motor Company who became Secretary of Defense and then finished out his career as President of the World Bank. He was able to handle these diverse positions because he had transferrable administrative skills. It is not necessary for someone to be a seasoned politician to be president but they do need certain skills that can be honed in various ways such as how Trump and Oprah earned their wings. The second reason has to do with the experience of those like Joe who has spent his life learning the ways of Washington politics and cannot understand how someone from outside without this experience could be president. The people in the political establishment who have learned the ways of Washington are not happy when a neophyte can step in and pass them by. This is not just affecting politicians but also those in the press who cover politics. They have spent years cultivating inside sources for information and now Trump tweets out his thoughts to the general public and they feel left out. All of the work they have done over the years to ingratiate themselves to various politicals is no longer an edge. In years past the New York Times editorial page would set the news for the day and now it’s an early morning tweet. This can be very frustrating.