"The top two candidates right now are both in their late 70s — former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Biden graduated from Syracuse University Law School, number 76 in a class of 85, dodging a plagiarism rap. He entered politics in 1969 while practicing law, then was elected to the Senate in 1972. In other words, 47 years since his last real job.
Which is still better than Bernie Sanders. He first wedged his snout into the public trough in the early ’80s when he was elected mayor of Burlington, Vt. From 1964-76, he claimed to have worked as a freelance writer, carpenter, youth counselor and “state employee.” In the late 1970s, he allegedly directed something called “the American People’s Historical Society,” a nonprofit he started himself. He now owns three homes. Doing well by doing good, apparently.
Sen. Kamala Harris runs third in most national polls. Unless you include her, uh, experience as Willie Brown’s girlfriend, she has zero experience in the Dreaded Private Sector.
Ditto, Sen. Cory Booker. He graduated from Yale Law in 1997 and was elected to the Newark City Council in 1998. His closest brush with a real job was serving as a staff attorney with a nonprofit called the Urban Justice Center. His dear friend, T-Bone, does have a real job — as a drug dealer. Oh wait, T-Bone is a “composite” — in other words, Booker made him up.
Beto O’Rourke: From 1991-95, worked as a “musician” and furry with a loser rock band, then was hired by his uncle, also worked as a live-in nanny in New York. Wrote short stories. Elected to local city council in 2005. Fourteen years since anything remotely resembling a real job.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren claims to have made short money as a solo-practice lawyer in New Jersey in the mid-’70s, flipped some houses during the S&L crisis in Oklahoma, and may have represented an asbestos company or two while practicing law without a license in Massachusetts. But she’s basically an academic. And yes, it helps if you’re falsely checking the box as a minority, no matter what she says.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar: Daughter of a media figure in Minnesota, worked in DPS as a lawyer until 1999 when she became Hennepin County district attorney. She was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006. So it’s been 20 years since her last private sector job.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: Daughter of a connected political/lobbyist family in New York. Worked in the law firm of David Boies (Al Gore’s lawyer in the 2000 Florida recount), clients included Big Tobacco. Was elected to the House in 2006. Twelve years since her last real job. (Age 52, claims to be a “young mother.”)
These, God help us, are the Democrats’ front-runners. The only ones who have any experience in the real world aren’t even asterisks in the polls. John Hickenlooper, the former governor of Colorado — he’s not terribly impressive, to say the least, but he did used to be a geologist for Buckhorn Petroleum, after which he was involved with a craft brewery in Denver, many years ago. He has no shot, obviously.
Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington is a slightly more plausible candidate. He was a lawyer before he was elected to some office or another … in 1985.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., is gay, and he’s married to a guy, and he once won a JFK Profiles in Courage Essay Contest for an article on the courage of Bernie Sanders. That’s on the plus side. The downside: he was a Navy intelligence officer in Afghanistan.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has the same problem: military background. Plus, her father is a Roman Catholic in the Hawaii legislature — a serious one, unlike, say, Joe Biden. Say goodnight, Tulsi.
Rep. John Delaney: Founded two publicly traded companies. Worked in the DPS until 2012. Why is he even bothering?
The Democrats used to be the party of the working class. Now they’ve become the party of the non-working class. The only remaining question is, are there more of them now than there are of those of us who get up and go to a job in the morning?"
