WEBCommentary Contributor

Author: Michael J. Gaynor
Date:  February 18, 2008

Topic category:  Other/General

Who's Best Prepared to Be President?


It's time for McCain and Romney to team up for America's sake and make sure the voters don't pick as President a person who is far from ready for the job (junior Senator Hillary) or a person who is even farther from ready for the job (rookie Senator Barack).

Happy Presidents' Day!

Senator Barack Hussein Obama has been saying that the situation is too important and the problems are too great for politics as usual this year.

He's right! America is engaged in a long war with terrorists and facing siginificant economic challenges, so it behooves Americans to chhose a President and Vice President with distinguished military service, ample legislative experience and impressive executive experience in BOTH the public and private sector.

Would the best team be Hillary-Barack, Barack-Hillary or McCain-Romney?

Fact: McCain is the only one of the four with distinguished military service, and he had more legislative experience than Hillary and Barack combined.

Fact: Romney is the only one of the four with impressive executive experience in EITHER the public or private sector and he has it in both.

Fact: Hillary and Barack are Ivy League law school graduates with no military experience and no executive experience.

It's time for McCain and Romney to team up for America's sake and make sure the voters don't pick as President a person who is far from ready for the job (junior Senator Hillary) or a person who is even farther from ready for the job (rookie Senator Barack).

An ardent Barack backer angrily emailed me that Barack is too as prepared to be President as prior Presidents and better educated than at least eight of them (them being 42).

Truth be told, among Senators McCain, Clinton and Obama, the current presidential choices, Senator McCain obviously is the best prepared.

McCain's a military hero, not a military zero.

McCain bravely joined the Navy; Hillary and Barack safely studied law.

Like Presidents (and Generals) George Washington and Andrew Jackson, McCain was a prisoner of war (read the Andrew Jackson item below closely).

McCain is both a veteran and a veteran Senator; Hillary is only a veteran First Lady (Arkansas and the United States); and Barack is a rookie Senator. (Even Hillary was not so full of herself as to announce shortly after becoming a rookie Senator that she would run for President and won re-election first!)

McCain has served as a United States Senator for more than 20 years; Hillary; 7; Barack, 3.

McCain served two terms as a Congressman; Hillary and Barack, none.

And McCain can smartly allay legitimate concerns about his age (notice that since McCain became the presumptive Republican presidential canidate that expressions of concern about McCain's age have proliferated?) and lack of executive experience, economic expertise and private sector experience by tapping his chief Republican rival, Romney, as his running mate.

In deciding whom to support, please consider the military and political pre-presidential experience of the 42 Presidents of the United States set forth below.

George Washington (Virginia, 1789-1797)--joined Virginia militia in 1752, captured by the French during the French and Indian War, elected to the House of Burgesses in 1758, served as a justice (1760-1774), Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army (1775-1783), President of the Constitutional Convention (1787)

John Adams (Massachusetts, 1797-1801)--no military service, delegate to the first (1774) and second (1775-1778) Continental Congresses, first Vice President (1789-1797)

Thomas Jefferson (Virginia, 1801-1809)--no military service, author of the Declaration of Independence, Governor (1779-1781), Minister to France (1785-1789), first Secretary of State (1789-1793), Vice President (1797-1801)

James Madison (Virginia, 1809-1817)--state legislator (1776-79), delegate to Continental Congress (1780-1783), "Father of the Constitution" (1797), co-author of The Federalist Papers (1787-1788), Congressman (1789-1797), Secretary of State (1801-1809)

James Monroe (Virginia, 1817-1825)--elected to House of Delegates in 1782, delegate to Continental Congress (1783-1786), elected United States Senator in 1790, Governor (1799-1802, 1811), Minister to France (1794-1796), Secretary of State (1811-1814, 1815-1817), Secretary of War (1814-1815)

John Quincey Adams (Massachusetts, 1825-1829)--elected to state senate in 1802, United States Senator (1803-1808), Minister to Russia (1809-1814), Minister to Britain (1815-1817), Secretary of State (1817-1825)

Andrew Jackson (Tennessee, 1829-1837)--served as a courier at age 13 during the American Revolution, captured and held as a prisoner of war, nearly starving to death and being slashed with a sword and permanently scarred by a British officer for refusing to clean the officer's boots, Congressman (1796-1797), United States Senator (1797-1798, 1823-1825), territorial Governor of Florida (1821)

Martin van Buren (New York, 1837-1841)--no military service, supported the War of 1812 as state senator, United States Senator (1821-1828), Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary (1823-1828), Governor (1829), Secretary of State (1829-1831), Vice President (1833-1837)

William H. Harrison (Ohio, 1841)--United States Army (1791-1798), Secretary of the Northwest Territory (1798), Northwest Territory delegate to Congress (1799-1800), resigned to become Governor of Indiana Territory, Congressman from Ohio (1816-1819), Ohio state senator (1819-1821), United States Senator (1824-1828), Minister to Columbia (1828-1829)

John Tyler (Virginia, 1841-1845)--captain of volunteer military company (1813), state delegate (1811-1816,1823-1825, 1839), member of council of state (1816), Congressman (1816-1821),Governor (1825-1827), United States Senator (1827-1836), state constitutional convention member (1829-1830), Vice President (1841)

James K. Polk (Tennessee, 1845-1849)--no military service, Speaker of the House of Representatives (1835-1839), Governor (1839-1841)

Zachary Taylor (Virginia, 1849-1850)--United States Army (1808-1848)

Millard Fillmore (New York, 1850-1853)--home guard in state militia, state assemblyman (1829-1831), Congressman (1833-43), state comptroller (1847-1849), Vice President (1849-1850)

Franklin Pierce (New Hampshire, 1853-1857)--Served in the Mexican-American War, Congressman (1833-1835, 1837-1843), United States Senator (1837-1842), president of state constitutional convention (1850)

James Buchanan (Pennsylvania, 1857-1861)--no military service, state representative (1814-1820), Congressman (1821-1831), Ambassador to Russia (1832-1834), United States Senator (1834-1845), Secretary of State (1845-1849). Minister to Britain (1853-1856)

Abraham Lincoln (Illinois, 1861-1865)--Served in Illinois militia during the Black Hawk War, state representative (four terms), Congressman (1847-1849)

Andrew Johnson (Tennessee, 1865-1869)--no military service, Governor (1853-1857), United States Senator (1857-1862), Vice President (1865)

Ulysses S. Grant (Ohio, 1869-1877)--West Point graduate who served in the Mexican-American war and commanded the Union Army during the Civil War

Rutherford B. Hayes (Ohio, 1877-1881)--Union Army (1861-1865), Governor (1868-1872, 1877-1881)

James Garfield (Ohio, 1881)--Union Army (1861-1863), Congressman (1863-1881)

Chester A. Arthur (New York, 1881-1885)--served as quartermaster general during Civil War, Collector of the Port of New York (1871-1878), Vice President (1881)

Grover Cleveland (New York, 1885-1889, 1893-1897)--paid Polish immigrant $150 to serve for him during Civil War, Mayor of Buffalo (1882-1883), Governor of New York (1883-1885)

Benjamin Harrison (Ohio, 1889-1893)--Union Army (1862-1865), United States Senator (1881-1887)

William McKinley (Ohio, 1897-1901)--Union Army (1861-1865), Governor of Ohio (1892-1896)

Theodore Roosevelt (New York, 1901-1909)--organized and led the "Rough Riders" during the Spanish-American War (1898), President of the Board of New York City Police Commissioners (1895-1897), Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1897-1898), Governor(1899-1900), Vice President (1901)

William H. Taft (Ohio, 1909-1913)--no military service, United States Solicitor General (1890-1892), Civil Governor of the Philippines (1901-1903), Secretary of War (1904-1908), Provisional Governor of Cuba (1906)

Woodrow Wilson (New Jersey, 1913-1921)--no military service, President of Princeton University (1902-1910), Governor (1911-1913)

Warren Harding (Ohio, 1921-1923)--no military service, state senator (1900-1904), Lieutenant Governor of Ohio (1904-1906), United States Senator (1915-1921)

Calvin Coolidge (Massachusetts, 1923-1928)--no military service, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts (1916-1919), Governor of Massachusetts (1919-1921), Vice President (1921-1923)

Herbert Hoover (California, 1929-1933)--no military service, headed Committee for Relief in Belgium and the American Food Administration during World War I, Secretary of Commerce (1921-1928)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (New York, 1933-1945)--no military service, state senator (1911-1913), Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1913-1914), Governor (1929-1932)

Harry S. Truman (Missouri, 1945-1953)--Missouri National Guard (1905-1911, rejoined after United States entered World War I), United States Senator (1935-1945), Vice President (1945)

Dwight D. Eisenhower (Kansas, 1953-1961)--United States Army (1911-1952), Supreme Allied Commander Europe (1951-1952)

John F. Kennedy (Massachusetts, 1961-1963)--United States Navy (1941-1945), Congressman (1947-1953), United States Senator (1953-1960)

Lyndon B. Johnson (Texas, 1963-1968)--joined United States Naval Reserves after attack on Pearl Harbor and was awarded the Silver Star, Congressman (1937-1949), United States Senator (1949-1961), Vice President (1961-1963)

Richard M. Nixon (California, 1969-1974)--United States Navy (1942-1946), Congressman (1947-1951), United States Senator (1951-1953), Vice President (1953-1961)

Gerald R. Ford (Michigan, 1974-1977)--United States Navy (1942-1946), Congressman (1949-1973), Vice President (1973-1974)

Jimmy Carter (Georgia, 1977-1981)--United States Navy (1946-1953), state senator (1963-1967), Governor (1971-1975)

Ronald Reagan (California, 1981-1989)--United States Army (1937-1945), Governor (1967-1975)

George H.W. Bush (Texas, 1989-1993)--United States Navy (1942-1945), Congressman (1967-1971), Ambassador to the United Nations (1971-1973), Chairman of the Republican National Committee (1973-1974), Director of Central Intelligence Agency (1976-1977), Vice President (1981-1989)

William J. Clinton (Arkansas, 1993-2001)--no military service, Attorney General of Arkansas (1977-1979), Governor of Arkansas (1979-1981, 1983-1992), Chair of the National Governors Association (1986-1987)

George W. Bush (Texas, 2001-)--Texas Air National Guard (1968-1973), Governor of Texas (1995-2000)

Bottom line: EXPERIENCE MATTERS!

Michael J. Gaynor


Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.


Copyright © 2008 by Michael J. Gaynor
All Rights Reserved.


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