The Ottoman Sultan Problem Once Again: A correspondent writes:
Posted by DeLong at March 11, 2003 08:19 PM | TrackBackI don't see how we will escape the Ottoman Sultan problem.
It seems very, very hard for Senators or others with meaningful national track records to be elected, excepting Vice-Presidents.
So, we will be left with ex-Governors and ex-Veeps.
The ex-Governors tend to know little of foreign lands; hence, we end up relying on a lot of learning on the job. As Kissinger famously
pointed out, it is hard to build intellectual capital while in office. It takes someone very, very smart--and we are only going to get that once a generation or so.And the selection of Veeps since 1944 has been a downright irresponsible parade of political hacks and freaks. It is interesting that history is so tough on most Presidential decisions, but the Prez's have tended to get free passes on the Veep choice. Agnew? Quayle? These are guys you wouldn't want coaching a children's soccer team.
I suspect we will be stuck with the Ottoman Sultan problem and hope that the responsible foreign policy cliques will have the skill and self-confidence to fight off the various scum-sucking cynics, hacks, haters, utopians, and charlatans who cluster and feed around Presidential candidates.