So, there's this continuing meme about Barack Obama's lack of experience. What exactly is the threshold of experience that one should have to be elected to the Presidency?

Let's take a look at the previous 43 presidents and the number of years in elected office:

George Washington - 0 years
John Adams - 8 years
Thomas Jefferson - 6 years
James Madison - 8 years
James Monroe - 8 years
John Quincy Adams - 4 years
Andrew Jackson - 4 years
Martin Van Buren - 8 years
William Henry Harrison - 22 years
John Tyler - 15 years
James K. Polk - 16 years
Zachary Taylor - 0 years
Millard Fillmore - 11 years
Franklin Pierce - 8 years
James Buchanan - 22 years
Abraham Lincoln - 10 years
Andrew Johnson - 18 years
Ulysses S. Grant - 0 years
Rutherford B. Hayes - 7 years
James A. Garfield - 18 years
Chester A. Arthur - 6 months
Grover Cleveland - 2 years
Benjamin Harrison - 6 years
Grover Cleveland - 6 years (incl. previous term)
William McKinley - 20 years
Theodore Roosevelt - 2 years
William Howard Taft - 0 years
Woodrow Wilson - 2 years
Warren G. Harding - 8 years
Calvin Coolidge - 7 years
Herbert Hoover - 0 years
Franklin D. Roosevelt - 6 years
Harry S. Truman - 10 years
Dwight D. Eisenhower - 0 years
John F. Kennedy - 13 years
Lyndon B. Johnson - 26 years
Richard Nixon - 14 years
Gerald Ford - 24 years
Jimmy Carter - 4 years
Ronald Reagan - 8 years
George H. W. Bush - 8 years
Bill Clinton - 10 years
George W. Bush - 8 years

Granted, most of these men had distinguished service careers prior to this, some holding cabinet or diplomatic posts, but when it comes to actual elected office time, they average less than nine years experience, with some few serving more than 10, and a number having not been elected to public office at all before being elected to the presidency or vice-presidency.

So, where do the current candidates stand?

John McCain leads the pack with 25 years of elected office, which would make him the second-longest serving public official elected to the White House, trailing Lyndon Johnson by only a year. Barack Obama has half that with 12 years, topping the average by three years. Hillary Clinton brings up the rear, a relative newcomer with only 8 years holding elected office, one shy of the average, but longer than George Washington and Thomas Jefferson combined...

So, let's put that idea to rest.

-pb