I understand politics requires rhetoric. I'm not naive. But I would think that President Obama would like just a small part of himself to stand above some things that shouldn't be too hard to stand up for. Calling Hillary the most qualified person to ever run for President is just so ridiculous that it questions his ability in almost every capacity. It takes a special level of just sheer hatred of the people he is supposed to lead to feed them something so repugnant. He could have supported her 10 ways from Sunday without saying that. I mean, let's be honest for a second, the guy she is going to be running against isn't qualified any more than I am, so it's not like this has to be a resume battle. She wins that, but against our political history? Not close.
Hillary was a good attorney, a political campaigner and volunteer, First Lady of Arkansas, author, First Lady of the United States, Secretary of State, Senator from New York and campaigned twice for the office and is now the presumptive nominee of her party.
How about a guy that was an attorney who by all accounts was better at it than her, relatively speaking, a more advanced and prodigious author, the writer of numerous state constitutions, the architect of the language of the Declaration of Independence, a community leader, an elected official to Congress, the leader of the language of the revolution, Minister Plenepotientary to several countries that actually funded the birth of the nation, the most successful foreign diplomat in our history, the only person that was a close second to George Washington in popular stature, and the guy that should be credited with ultimately being the one that crafted the ultimate peace treaty that created the nation. She doesn't come close to John Adams.
Of course, you could argue the founding generation was too long ago. You would have to, because in no particular order, the people that were more qualified to be President than Hillary Clinton from that era include, George Washington, the aforementioned John Adams, John Jay, John Rutledge, George Clinton, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Pickney, Samuel Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe, and John Quincy Adams. And those are just the guys that were "serious" candidates that "ran" for the office.
You could jump forward about 50 years, ignore men like Abraham Lincoln (lawyer, statesmen, soldier, political leader, greatest poplitical writer of his time) and even a general like Ulysses Grant (who wasn't very qualified in the grand scheme of things) completely ignore Henry Clay who might be the most qualified person in our history to run for the office after the founders, completely forget someone in our history like Daniel Webster, and go to a guy that was a 9 time member of Congress, elected to the Senate, Major General, State Senator, Chairman of numerous important House subcommittees, attorney (who argued before the Supreme Court - in what was his first oral argument because he was so good at his job that his first oral argument in front of any court was before the United States Supreme Court) is credited with one of the most ingenious mathematical proofs regarding the pythagorean theorum, and of course, ultimately was chosen to run and then elected to the office. But somehow, Hillary Clinton is more qualified to be President than James Garfield.
But we can ignore that time in history too. Guys like Grover Cleveland (sheriff, mayor, governor, and one of the most powerful legislators in New York history), James Blaine (a great diplomat, member of the House, Speaker of the House, Senator, and was a leader in the rights for blacks to get the right to vote), William McKinley ( Major, Governor, lawyer, House member), Theodore Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, and Woodrow Wilson all didn't really match up to Hillary Clinton.
But post-civil war and reconstruction into the turn of the 20th century might be too far away. So we can jump another 50 years or so. We can ignore William Howard Taft, Franklin Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover (who might be the second most qualified person ever to run for the office and might be the most qualified in the last 100 years) Harry Truman, and heck even Richard Nixon. We can instead focus on John Kennedy. Not my shining example of anything politics, but with a military background, service in the House and Senate he isn't lless qualified than her. How about Lyndon Johnson, Herbert Humphrey or George McGovern (military, House, Senate)?
Nah, Gerald Ford? All he did in the House was fall down. Ronald Reagan? Actor, ate too many jelly beans. How about George H.W. Bush? You want to talk about qualifications to run for the office of President? Military, business leader, Congress, diplomat, leader of the GOP, Ambassador to the UN, special envoy to China, Director of the CIA, and director of the Special Counsel on Foreign Relations. If there was ever a person that was "more qualified" than George Herbert Walker Bush to be President (and that is ignoring that he was an actual Vice President too) his name better include Adams, Hoover or maybe one or two more and that's it.
How about Bob Dole? Military, House and served in the Senate for like three decades. Hell, how about Al Gore? House, Senate, ran once before he ran after Clinton, and he was author too. John Kerry and John McCain weren't slouches either in the experience department. Kerry was basically born into the mold of what to be to be a President. His life reads like a long journey into the office.
This is already too long. And I only mentioned a few of the people that lost. The comment is insane. I can understand wanting to give her some credit for being a First Lady for eight years. It does count for something. And she wasn't a 19th century first lady doing nothing, I get that. But it doesn't stand up to a myriad of the other levels of experience here. What she truly has is the experience of being a political name for the better part of 30 years, a short term Senator and a short term Secretary of State. She isn't unqualfied, no one should make that mistake. But to call her one of the most ever? It take a special level of political narcissism to say it, an even worse of level of true ignorance to repeat it, and just downright utter medically diagnosed stupidity to believe it.
Shocked I tell you!!! Shocked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
