The whole idea of career politicians is anathematic. There should be no such thing. People should be selected to represent their friends and neighbors for a while, and then return to their homes and jobs. My God, we need term limits in the Congress.

There's a great story about Davey Crockett (who served in Congress prior to going to the Alamo). He was the last Congressman that deserved to be re-elected.

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I was one day in the lobby of the House of Representatives when a bill was taken up appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in its support — rather, as I thought, because it afforded the speakers a fine opportunity for display than from the necessity of convincing anybody, for it seemed to me that everybody favored it. The Speaker was just about to put the question when Crockett arose. Everybody expected, of course, that he was going to make one of his characteristic speeches in support of the bill. He commenced:

"Mr. Speaker — I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the sufferings of the living, if suffering there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it.

We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I have never heard that the government was in arrears to him. This government can owe no debts but for services rendered, and at a stipulated price. If it is a debt, how much is it? Has it been audited, and the amount due ascertained? If it is a debt, this is not the place to present it for payment, or to have its merits examined. If it is a debt, we owe more than we can ever hope to pay, for we owe the widow of every soldier who fought in the War of 1812 precisely the same amount.

There is a woman in my neighborhood, the widow of as gallant a man as ever shouldered a musket. He fell in battle. She is as good in every respect as this lady, and is as poor. She is earning her daily bread by her daily labor; but if I were to introduce a bill to appropriate five or ten thousand dollars for her benefit, I should be laughed at, and my bill would not get five votes in this House. There are thousands of widows in the country just such as the one I have spoken of, but we never hear of any of these large debts to them. Sir, this is no debt.

The government did not owe it to the deceased when he was alive; it could not contract it after he died. I do not wish to be rude, but I must be plain. Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot, without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as a charity.

Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much of our own money as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week's pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks."

He took his seat. Nobody replied. The bill was put upon its passage, and, instead of passing unanimously, as was generally supposed, and as, no doubt, it would, but for that speech, it received but few votes, and, of course, was lost.

If I did I’d have to tell people I had a respectable job of playing piano in a whore house. Pop

Nope. I have done the low level government worker bee thing for several years and thats enough for me.

Without any doubt, no.

Nope. Not cut out for it. I cannot successfully lie.

flashguy

I am electorally disadvantaged -- I can not stand bureaucracy, and I lack the political gene.

So my dream job has always been U.S. Senator. Really. Like since I was 17.

I do agree that elected officials should serve and then come home to live under the laws they helped create. And in a perfect world I would repeal the 17th Amendment.

It's like a lot of things, you either love it or you don't. and some people learn to love the power more than the importance of being an elected representative.

But yea, I could have made a career out of it and been happy.

Not an ice cube’s chance in hell.

No

I have seriously considered running for Mayor of the small town I live in. In the small town sense, I would do it. As stated in the OP, I don’t know. I imagine it would be similar to a small town, but scaled up.

Now, the facts. I wouldn’t get elected. I’m heavily tattooed, I m a Republican, I don’t have a stellar education, and there are a lot of things I did in my youth, that I would prefer didn’t get brought up.

Then there is part of me that thinks for exactly those reasons, I could get elected.

So from my rambling answer, yes. I think I could do well as a politician.

My answer is no. I would be taken advantage of and I would get angry; an elephant never forgets.

If I did serve, afterwards I would have to take the longest bath and scour myself with pumice and granite to get the slime off of me.

Nope, but I would make a damn fine King

quote:

So my dream job has always been U.S. Senator. Really. Like since I was 17.

You have the same dream as Coach Tommy Tuberville!

I couldn't do it. Politicians must have very thick skin and I don't take rejection well at all.

I'm from Chicago, so my opinions of politicians are probably lower than most.

My father told me when I was young, he'd give me $55 as my first campaign contribution.
$5 to get down to the City Hall
$50 to get my last name changed...

No way in Gods green earth I could do it.

Remember the movie "Lone Wolf McQuade"?
One of my favorite quotes-
"The only thing worse than a politician is maybe a child molester"

No way. You basically have to become a habitual liar. I detest what politicians have become. Term limits for everyone! However that can’t happen. Politicians will not vote to restrict their way of life. It has become scheming for their re-election just a few days after each Election Day.

I hate meetings.

Perhaps one can acquire the skills one needs, for this, at the "Joseph R. Biden School of Public Policy and Administration."

"The Godfather" said it best:

Vito Corneone - "What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully"

It was never intended to be a career. You hear me you little weasel Chuck Schumer?