Preparation for American presidents

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In the US Constitution, there are stated requirements for becoming President of the United States:

"No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States." (Article 2, Section 1)

In our time, bare criteria are, (1) natural born US citizen, and, (2) age 35 or above. Changes have been informally proposed (never to the level of Constitutional amendment), for changes in these requirements, most often for changes to the natural born citizenship requirement. This has usually arisen in response to thoughts that a specific individual who was not natural born might make a good president. Examples of this are German born Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the 1970s, and the current cases of Austrian born California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Canadian born Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. However this article addresses the more unspoken issues for preparation for becoming presidents throughout the nation's history.

[edit] Backgrounds of US Presidents

While it's a cliché in American life that "anyone can grow up to be president," the reality is that the 43 American presidents thus far have all been males of European ancestry. No woman or person of color has yet been elected to the presidency,^{[citation needed]} and a part of this may be that Americans have tended to pick their presidents from several experience backgrounds, most of which have -- for various reasons -- been less open to women in the past, which has tended to shut women out of the line of preparation that tends to lead to the presidency. Presidents have tended to be drawn from (1) war heroes, (2) cabinets of former presidents (especially in the early years of the republic), (3) those with experience in the legislative branch (though this is far less widespread than is usually thought), and (4) former governors.

[edit] Early Years of the Republic

Apart from President Washington, who was a virtually unanimous choice as the revolutionary war hero, early presidents were usually drawn from those who had previously served as Secretary of State.

[edit] Geographical Backgrounds of Presidents

In the early years of the Republic, the state of Virginia was known as the "mother of presidents," since so many Presidents were from there. Eight presidents -- Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Harrison, Tyler, Taylor, and Wilson -- were from Virginia.