Election Commentary...
No, not that kind of commentary. More of a thought I had while riding prior to MOO. Kind of a memory dredged up from those old high school government courses, really.
Most of us took some basic civics or government course in high school. At least, I hope we did. One of things they drilled into us in those classes was the idea of separation of powers. You know, the legislature makes laws, the executive enforces them, etc. There was more to it, of course: the legislature controlled the budget, the executive was the head of the bureaucracy, generally speaking. So on and so forth. We were told it was one of the "unique" things about our government, that it was considered a stroke of "genius", by some, on the part of the founders. The reason, we were told, was because it provided for checks and balances in our government.
This was all true. Our government is unique. The President is the head of the Executive Branch. The CEO, if you will. As opposed to a more parliamentary system (i.e. Great Britain) where the Prime Minister is elected from the ranks of Parliament, we have a separate presidential election. He/She is elected independently of the legislature. What we often didn't hear in those classes was that this was another one of those bits of "genius" coming from our Constitution. By design, we evaluate our presidential candidates in their own light. Not as a legislator, but as an executive. This is a good thing: a person who makes an excellent legislator (representative or senator) does not necessarily make a good president. They are two entirely different positions, requiring different knowledge bases and skill sets. There are those who say, historically speaking, that senators make poor presidents. Be that as it may, I think there is something to be said for the argument for experience. It is something the American voter, I think, understands at some basic level.
History bears this out. Only 15 of our presidents ever served as senators. Further, only 2 of them, Warren Harding and John F. Kennedy, were incumbent senators at the time of their election. This is the first time in history that both major parties have nominated a sitting U.S. senator to be their presidential nominee. So, come January 20, no matter what, an incumbent senator will be sworn is as president.