No wonder the Obama Administration is clueless about the real world

by Rossputin | 5:02 am, December 1, 2009 | Comments Off

[H/T The American blog and Red State…]

We’re all familiar with Barack Obama’s lack of qualifications to be president, particularly during a time of economic turmoil when real-world (i.e. private sector) experience is so important.  As far as I can tell, he’s never during his adulthood had a job outside of academia or political activism.  So it’s not surprising that he understands precious little about markets, business, capitalism, etc.

But let’s stipulate that not every president has been an expert on everything he needed to make wise decisions about.  That’s why the president has a cabinet.  Reagan was a great example.  He was smart and principled but he knew what he didn’t know so he surrounded himself with smart advisors.  (This is of course not to say that his advisors were all angels…)  For example, members of Reagan’s cabinet included General Alexander Haig, George Schultz, James Baker, William Brock, and Bill Bennett. These are people for whom even Democrats generally had at least grudging respect.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, is so certain of his ability to mold the world to his wishes and so certain the he can be The One to allow the triumph of hope over experience that – with the exception of the Secretary of Defense, a holdover from the last Bush administration – he has chosen advisors who generally share his naive view of the world and his statist aspirations for the smart chosen few to make all important decisions for us.

According to the American blog linked above, the following chart comes from a J.P. Morgan research report. It shows the percentage of the total work experience of cabinet appointments over the last century which was in the private sector.

You can see the average appears to be slightly over 40%, with the low points during Democratic administrations.  Reagan’s appointees had over 50% of their work experience in the private sector.  The Obama appointees’ work experience is jaw-dropping, with well under 10% being in the private sector.  The second worst showing, under JFK, was close to 30%.

No wonder this is the gang that can’t shoot straight when it comes to anything other than spending other people’s money. After all, that’s the only thing the public sector does and it’s the only thing Obama’s cabinet knows.

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