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Thursday, August 04, 2016

There Has Not Been a Non-Lawyer on a Democratic Presidential Ticket in Three Decades

Dems nominate two candidates from America's least favorite profession for ninth straight election

Democrats nominated two lawyers for the ninth consecutive presidential election at last week’s convention in Philadelphia, something Republicans have not done since 1972.

Both Hillary Clinton, who went to Yale Law School, and running mate Tim Kaine, who went to Harvard Law School, worked in private law practices before entering the political realm.

It has become a given for Democrats to nominate lawyers in recent decades. All of the party’s candidates going back to 1984—Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John Kerry, John Edwards, Al Gore, Joe Lieberman, Bill Clinton, Michael Dukakis, Walter Mondale, and Geraldine Ferraro—went to law school.

Many of them attended the same law school. Lieberman went to Yale along with both Clintons, while Kaine, Obama, and Dukakis went to Harvard.

The last time the Democrats put a non-lawyer on its presidential ticket was in 1980 when Jimmy Carter ran for re-election. Carter worked on his family’s peanut farm after serving in the U.S. Navy. Vice President Mondale is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School and worked in private practice before and after his political career.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

And many of them have either been disbarred at the time or during their presidency as in Clinton. Says a lot about how well lawyers can handle power. Not so hot! 🤗🤗🤗🤗

Anonymous said...


Al Gore is not a lawyer; never finished graduate divinity or law school programs.

In spite of this shortcoming he's been a big enough self-centered liar that most people assume he's a lawyer. Plus, he invented the internet.

LBJ was briefly a teacher IIRC; Humphrey a pharmacist; Carter a Navy nuclear officer.

Anonymous said...

all of them DISBARRED!

Anonymous said...

And we all know there are too many lawyers in this country. They think they are the only ones who are right but just look at the condition of this country after the many years of their leadership.