Can a poor person be elected president?

How would a poor person get started?

Bill Clinton was far from rich, but he had a lifetime of political involvement to use as his bona fides to run.

How could a poor person with little or no political background get elected? Is it even possible?

Sure; just not here.

He's a borderline dictator, and some of his actions would never be tolerated in this country...not even by us.

I doubt dictators hold elections.

I am sure Chavez is 100 X better than what the CIA has in store for them.

who was elected in an election where he lost the exit polls (sound familiar, anybody?)....and there's much more...


I don't want to hijack this thread. I'm just suggesting tha Chavez might not be the right poster child.

to RW US polling institution that did a phone poll which automatically excludes the vast poor majority of Venezuelans.

can get elected. I personally think having a life long involvement would be an asset. I don't rich or poor, and yes the rich person has a definite leg up has any reason for running unless he/she has been involved politicaly. My feeling is that a poor person should not be elcted unless they have shown an interest in public service, nor should a rich person be elected simply because he/she can buy an elected. * has shown us that a genuine interest and involvement is what counts as a leader not your wallet.

THAT have to do with anything?? Huh?? :shrug:

"My feeling is that a poor person should not be elected unless they have shown an interest in public service"...

Ah, wouldn't they have already shown interest in public service, if the subject was being discussed?
What are you thinking? That someone will put a gun to their head and make them run for office?

Are you talking about prior experience? :shrug:

I'd RATHER elect someone with gumption and zero dollars, than a millionare looking for 'prestige and power'!

I'm pretty sick and tired of that type. :grr:

:spray:

Just suck Ken Melman's dick and you're good to go. If you fuck Rush as well, your presidency is assured.

Oh, you mean as a Democratic president? No way.

:sarcasm:



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It was the visual picture of Ken...I can't go there.

Yuk.

Sorry, it hit my funny bone when I wrote it. Perhaps it's easier to swallow (pun intended) when you don't know what he looks like, 'cos I don't.

Ooops! Did it again!

:evilgrin:

not real attractive, actually.

The insane funding of insanely expensive political campaigns can't be done without a lot of corproate help and those corporations expect a return on their investment.

Seriously, no one gets to wake up one morning and decide to run for ANY office above the level of city council or school board. They are approached by groups of backers who offer funding to get the campaign started.

Right now we are only able to elect our officials according to which industries back them. Stupid is oil, pharmaceuticals and military contractors; Gore, Kerry and Edwards were largely banking and the ABA, although they relied more heavily on individual contributions once their campaigns got started.

Back in the good old days when we had strong unions, they could also influence campaigns for the benefit of working folks. Now we have no one.

Bill Clinton proved that any kid can still become President. (with hard work)

George W. Bush proved that Any kid can still become President. (with hard drinking for 40 years and millions of dollars)

Truman, Eisenhower, Reagan, Nixon? :shrug:

his brains and getting scholarships or do you mean a guy who is a HVAC Specialist in NC who suddenly tries to run for President and the whole of America sees him as the ONE?

I guess I didn't understand the original poster. Maybe he was saying could one of US suddenly declare for President and WIN.

Since we have a "Constitutional Process" no matter how fucked up it is at the moment ...I can't see how it would be reasonable or we would want someone with no experience in anything to suddenly declare and win the Presidency.

What if it was some Right Wing Southern School Board Member who was a Dobson or Falwell clone. I don't think I'd want to vote for someone like that. But, maybe that's just me.

Clinton while poor as a child, was not really "poor" when he ran. Take the Rhodes Scholarship away from Bill and he'd never have made it to governor, much less president, IMO. Not that he didn't have the skill, or the will, or the personal charm, I just don't think he would have made it over that monstrous roadblock. I suppose we could look back at our history and find a couple of "poor guy" presidents, yes?




The foregoing is strictly my personal opinion. Any truth to be found therein is strictly relegated to the interpretation of the facts at hand, and heavily colored through my personal view of the world. If this view, and interpretation offends any one else's view and/or interpretation, the offense is completely unintentional, and the poster requests that you accept her apologies beforehand.

The aristocracy still runs this country -- on both sides of the aisle. The Democrats simply have a more benevolent aristocracy than the other side. There is no comparison to, say, the Kennedys -- who are wealthy, but believe in public service and making life better for the poor -- in the Republican Party. None, whatsoever.

We have got to find a way to level the playing field in both Parties if that is ever to change.

TC

The **only** way out is public financing of elections

It has to be on both sides of the aisle.

I don't think I'll ever live to see it, truthfully.

TC

The poor little rich boy.

:wow:

(rich or poor, I dont care, but this country does not seem to think a president needs any qualification.)

Kind of hard to get elected alderman if you cant buy a lot of quality face time. Be nice though, maybe someday ... right after these magic beans I bought start to grow :)

literally assinated

I guess she'd need backing. And a lot of it! ;)

By the 1850s he was making a good living as a lawyer.

the higher the office, the more money. It is easier to raise money when you have money, but a poor person with a lot of rich connections could do it.

a poor person with rich connections.
Further, I would hope that the OP meant what I know as "poor", in which case it'll never happen.
...O...

:crazy:

We've already shown we can elect the **other** kind of 'poor' person.

are not smart enough that is why we still have the electoral college. :sarcasm:

HST was a mere haberdasher who was so poor that he and his family had to live with his mother-in-law, who daily reminded Bess what a failure she had married. Truman was elevated through Missouri political ranks and ended as VP to FDR because of the democratic machine in his state. No one expected him to become president. Obviously neither did FDR.

So the moral of the story is you DON'T need money to be president, but you needs "friends" who do.

Not in this country. Not anymore. Now it takes millions to raise your visibility enough for people to take you seriously as a candidate. You have to be able to afford TV time, travel, a staff of professionals to help you campaign and do your spin, and world of other things that the average person could not afford.

Politics is a big business now, and unfortunately it is designed for and run by very rich men with very rich backers. Most of the time I think that leadership and personal integrity are very minor issues in candidates running for office. It seems to be mostly about how you appear and not who you are.

To be elected, you should have relavent experience. At any time, there really are only a small group, likely less than 100 people, who can convince enough people that they have the right experience, intelligence and temperment to be President. Occasionally, some get in as legacies, but the norm is you really need accomplishments - W is a fluke, and was likely a "face" for Bush 1 and Cheney.

Bill Clinton, Wes Clark and John Edwards were born to poor or middle class families. Bill Clinton suceeded first academically, became a lawyer and was Arkansas' Attorney General and for several terms, Governor. Wes Clark gained the credentials he ran on in the military. John Edwards made a fortune as a trial lawyer, and was a first term Senator. Their various successes in their lives are what they ran on. I would say that both Clark and Edwards qualify as having little political background, though getting elected to the Senate is nothing to sneeze at and they were not born rich.

You do need all the things that make a person a success and outstanding success in some field to even be considered.

He wasnt poor as we think about poor but in modern history I think he was the closest thing we have ever seen to being just a guy you might expect to meet at the coffe shop.
Go ahead, you may now correct me and tell me he was actualy a billionaire :)

from a very lucrative family peanut farm business.

TC

Thats the point isnt it ..

http://www.americanpresident.org/history/jimmycarter/

Carter was the first American president born in a hospital, and was raised on his family’s farm outside the small town of Plains, Georgia, where the family home lacked electricity and indoor plumbing. Jimmy was named after his father, a businessman who kept a farm and store in Plains. Carter’s mother, "Miz" Lillian, a nurse by training, set a moral example for her son by crossing the strict lines of segregation in 1920s Georgia to counsel poor African American women on matters of health care.

I have no idea how big the peanut farm. I also wasn't sure what he did between being the the Navy and being Governor of GA, so I took the easy way out and left him out and used the more recent examples. (Being Governor does, like it did for Clinton, give him political credit.)

I think you also have to consider that there are very few men in any generation who even are sreious contenders. For any birth year, there are likley only about 5 elections the babies that year would likely be candidates in. Even if there were 10 serious candidates each year - only 50 people in each cohort could be included (this overstates it as some would count in multiple years)

I think it's not just wealth, but connections to people in power. If you grow up seeing the leaders (govt or bus) of the country as the parents of your friends or the friends of your parents, you are far more likely to think you could join them. You also likely, by osmosis, pick up the manners and the mores of them. You also have the contacts that really help to succeed.

In 2004, people on the blogs correctly pointed out that Kerry had really not grown up wealthy and he was not wealthy for most of his adult life. To his credit, Kerry never said anything to counter the idea that he was privildged, because he was. Although his family wasn't wealthy, Kerry was a fully accepted member of the social elite. Bill Clinton, reached out his hand past other students to shake hands with President Kennedy. Kerry dated Jackie Kennedy's step sister and was invited to join the Kennedys on their yacht.

I havent been following this "censure carter" crap that I was scanning over earlier but having watched him as long as I have I assume all he is actualy doing is somehow pointing out that war reeks

by Bush standards. Poor by JFK's standards of family wealth.

We seem to forget that AMBITION CONQUERS POVERTY....and Brains and Brawn and a personality and ability to make good connections with issues and find a following amongst the "Money Bags" who fund your campaigns. :shrug:

In the end, they call the shots.

this very topic. It is world premiering at the Silverdocs documentary film festival in D.C. on June 16th. Here is a link: http://www.silverdocs.com/2006/films/canmr.aspx

period, a poor person could not really get elected.

Mr Smith is not elected. He is nominated to fill a vacancy, and the reason he is nominated is that corrupted politicians think that he can be manipulated. He turned out that he does not let them do that.

However, nothing in the movie suggests he could have been elected if he had run.

hence the title is just a play on words. It has obvioulsy worked since we sold out our first show in under thirty minutes, the only film in the festival to do so well. The funny thing is that most people have never seen the original Mr. Smith movie. We understand that it does not fit as a metaphor with the story we tell, but the title seems to tap inito an existing deep dissatisfaction with incumbents. We have tried several different titles on different audiences and this is the one that seems to work the best. I have always thought it is too long, but after seeing the actual results in the theater setting, we are sticking with the current title.

:shrug:

... chance.

he and Hillary never owned a House in their life until Hillary bought the house in NY when she ran for Senator.

He was dirt poor. Then there's Jimmy Carter out of Georgia who just managed to turn around the "Peanut Farm."

How about "St. Ronnie" ...he grew up poor and Lyndon Johnson..Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower. (Some were more "middle class" than others but compared to John F. Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt...they were POOR.

:shrug:

I have no idea what your sense of history is that you would ask that question. Are you thinking that John Kerry was too rich or something...Al Gore? Whaaaaa?

Cronies can become President.

Bush and his father are examples of CORRUPTION/WEALTH...gone WILD. But, it wasn't really them...they are and were PUPPETS for the POWER BROKERS who didn't even like the Rockefellers who were MUCH smarter than they were.

The Bushies have "BACKERS" sort of like the Mafia/Organized Crime. The "Shadow Government" that backs these imbeciles.

The rest of our modern Presidents managed to try to work around them....

But he or she will not be poor by the time s/he gets elected.

When Pigs Fly

check Steve Forbes, Ross Perot and some others.

It seems impossible for one to get up. Wouldn't it be nice though, to have a leader who could empathize with a poor "shit-kicker" on the minimum wage.

It takes many millions of dollars, many favors, and many promises of "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" to walk through that particular front door as the current resident...when a multi-millionaire has to hock his personal town house just to see if he can succeed at gaining entry...that kinda tells the story...somewhere we lost the mindset about it being all about "the best man for the job"....
windbreeze