# Republicans seem hell bent on nominating an unqualified candidate for president **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 21, 2015, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088 "2015-09-21T09:58:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/41 "2015-09-21T23:28:50Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Governors manage the implementation of programs. Senators do not. LBJ did not. The new bureaucracies in the War on Poverty in particular went running off in all directions doing their own thing with little direction from the White House. Ok, I agree with the high bit here, which is that governors may be expected to possess some implementation experience that legislators would not, even if you do misunderstand the oversight role that Senators in particular have and make some unsupported specific statements about LBJ. But that aside, wouldn’t you think there’d be some weighing of domain experience against executive experience? You seem to put 100% of your chips on the latter, which is complete nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/42 "2015-09-21T23:37:27Z")
Knowing about things is not as good as doing things, and doing things is not as good as being responsible for things. that’s why no one ever hired Bill James or Nate Silver to manage their baseball team. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/43 "2015-09-21T23:42:21Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Governors manage the implementation of programs. Senators do not. LBJ did not. Then it must be distressing to see the governor candidates dropping out first. Paging Bobby Jindal, paging Chris Christie… ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/44 "2015-09-21T23:44:22Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Knowing about things is not as good as doing things, and doing things is not as good as being responsible for things. that’s why no one ever hired Bill James or Nate Silver to manage their baseball team. I always think what **adaher** says creates ripples in time and space as the universe changes stuff around to demonstrate him wrong, right Governor Walker? ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/45 "2015-09-21T23:45:40Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Knowing about things is not as good as doing things, and doing things is not as good as being responsible for things. that’s why no one ever hired Bill James or Nate Silver to manage their baseball team. How about doing completely different things, like governors vs. presidents? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/46 "2015-09-21T23:49:07Z")
Except for foreign policy it’s not different. Governors deal with legislatures, implement programs, and are accountable for what happens in their administration, not to mention their state’s overall performance on issues like the economy, crime, and education. Senators are not held accountable for anything individually except in rare cases. As a matter of fact, they are experts in avoiding accountability. It’s true that a Senator has more experience with national issues, but so do the best journalists and policy experts. So instead of looking in the phone book, maybe we should just pick someone randomly from the Brooking Institution? Why wouldn’t that work? The reasons are obvious: people who know things can’t necessarily do things. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/47 "2015-09-22T00:32:48Z")
I guess it depends on what you think the most important problems facing the country are. If you think the problem is that we need new legislation, then I guess a legislative expert is a great thing. But if you think the primary problem is that the government is failing to successfully implement the programs it already runs, then a governor with a proven record of success in that field would be nice. For example, shouldn’t we agree that fixing the VA should be one of the highest priorities, and that the VA’s issues are primarily due to piss poor management? Who is more likely to fix something like that, a career legislator who has never run anything bigger than a staff, or a governor who has successfully reformed and improved the performance of state agencies? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/48 "2015-09-22T00:40:10Z")
Why are things like this still appearing in the media a year later? [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2015/09/21/he-blew-the-whistle-on-the-va-and-then-was-almost-sacked-for-eating-stale-sandwiches/](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2015/09/21/he-blew-the-whistle-on-the-va-and-then-was-almost-sacked-for-eating-stale-sandwiches/) > [@](#): > > He blew the whistle on the VA — and then was almost sacked for eating stale sandwiches I remember Bill Maher used to read the paper to GWB because he joked he didn’t read the newspaper. Bill might want to bring that one back for the next year and a half, because someone is really disconnected from what’s going on. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/49 "2015-09-22T02:05:33Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > For example, shouldn’t we agree that fixing the VA should be one of the highest priorities . . . No. A priority, but nowhere near to making the top 20. We have many much more important national problems. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/50 "2015-09-22T02:06:52Z")
Even so, proving you can fix broken agencies is a necessary prerequisite for attempting grand new programs. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/51 "2015-09-22T02:39:02Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Even so, proving you can fix broken agencies is a necessary prerequisite for attempting grand new programs. Cite? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/52 "2015-09-22T02:48:36Z")
I would think that logic of that statement is self-evident. Do you normally buy ice cream when your fridge doesn’t work? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/53 "2015-09-22T02:53:38Z")
Most of this country’s broken agencies, we know exactly what’s broken with them, and how to fix them. What’s broken about them is that their funding has been gutted by Republican legislators determined to make government fail. The solution to that problem isn’t better management; it’s getting the funding back up to what it should be. Which is a legislative problem. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/54 "2015-09-22T03:09:16Z")
Ah yes, a culture of retaliation against whistleblowers and allowing serious misconduct are symptoms of lack of funding. I guess that’s what our police departments need too? If only they had more funding they wouldn’t kill so many young black men? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/55 "2015-09-22T03:43:36Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > It would probably be better to select presidents and most other politicians by a random draw system among the general public, something like jury duty. A lottery. Spin the bottle. Anything but voting to select one of the proffered representatives of entrenched power. > > It is funny though, since Republicans attacked Obama so much for being inexperienced and unqualified. I can trot out my proposal for selecting governments by performance on a football pitch, if anyone likes. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/56 "2015-09-22T03:56:27Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Knowing about things is not as good as doing things, and doing things is not as good as being responsible for things. that’s why no one ever hired Bill James or Nate Silver to manage their baseball team. > **[Bill James](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_James#Acceptance_and_employment_in_mainstream_baseball)** > > George William James (born October 5, 1949) is an American baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books about baseball history and statistics. His approach, which he named sabermetrics after the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), scientifically analyzes and studies baseball, often through the use of statistical data, in an attempt to determine why teams win and lose. > In 2006, Time named... ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/57 "2015-09-22T03:59:58Z")
That’s not managing a baseball team. Or being general manager either. What James and Silver have done is made a lot of very good statistical arguments that were tried, often successfully, by managers and general managers(Billy Beane being the most famous example). It is still nowhere near the same as actually running a team. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/58 "2015-09-22T04:13:47Z")
And now the candidate they had with governing experience, a very conservative record, and in my view the best chance to win against the Democrats, has dropped out after he dropped to less than one half of 1% in the CNN poll. Republicans are plooking very foolish right now. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/59 "2015-09-22T04:20:43Z")
Can’t disagree with that. Meanwhile, Bush is channeling Clinton by claiming that his name=experience: “I know how to do this because, yes, I am a Bush.” ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2015, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088/60 "2015-09-22T04:27:40Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > And now the candidate they had with governing experience, a very conservative record, and in my view the best chance to win against the Democrats, has dropped out after he dropped to less than one half of 1% in the CNN poll. Republicans are plooking very foolish right now. Shit. What the fuck is “plooking”? Missed the edit window. Sigh. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-seem-hell-bent-on-nominating-an-unqualified-candidate-for-president/732088.md?page=4)