Opinion: Oops, Gov. Richardson got his governors wrong

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Understandable perhaps that New Mexico’s Gov. Bill Richardson should feel that governors, as the chief executives of states, are uniquely qualified to become chief executive of the United States. He’s the lone governor running on the Democratic side full of candidates with legislative experience.

And during this evening’s Democratic debate from Philadelphia he wanted to make the point that Americans favor chief executives, not legislators, as presidents. That’s been true in recent history. Only two sitting senators have been elected president.

Richardson said, ‘The reality on the electability issue is, the last senator that was elected president was 40 years ago. His name was John F. Kennedy. We elect governors as president. Seven of the last eight have been either governors or ex-governors.’

Well, actually not. Kennedy was elected 47 years ago and it’s four of the last five presidents who have been governors -- George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, but not George H.W. Bush.

The three presidents before that were all legislators -- Rep. Gerald Ford, former Sen. Richard Nixon and former Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson. Dwight Eisenhower was a general, a kind of chief executive. And Harry Truman was a former senator who inherited the presidency when Franklin Roosevelt died and then won election on his own in 1948.

On the Republican side this time, there are two former governors running, a former mayor and five legislators or former lawmakers.

--Andrew Malcolm