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Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan
That's a fair distinction. And many great presidents were also career military men. (starting with Washington, I guess!) It's worth noting though that some of the worst presidents in U.S. history were what you'd call "military men" too. U.S. Grant is the first example to pop into my head, but Zachary "Old Rough and Ready" Taylor is another. History shows that it isn't much of a guarantee. Andrew Jackson was a military man too--and though he's not especially well remembered for it, there was a guy who in the twentieth century would be facing a war crimes tribunal.
I guess what skews this is the fact that so many presidents had military backgrounds. It's almost the norm for much of the nation's history.
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Agreed. It's nice to an american with a good grasp of his country's presidential history. Makes me ashamed of my real lack of knowledge of Canadian political history.