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I don't think a degree should be required.

I don't feel strongly about it. I do feel they should have military experience.

Good gravy, yes. The person who represents us on the world stage should be able to show a capacity for in depth comprehensive thinking in a field. It's not so much WHAT he or she studies. It's the fact that he or she understands the principles of study.

For goodness sake, even GWB did an advanced degree. It's not too high of a bar!

This whole Scott Walker thing is ridiculous.

I do. I'm also just tired of the weird trend in politics over the last few years of making it seem like being well-educated is some kind of character flaw.

Wait, i need two degrees to sign off on drawings at a corporation but POTUS doesn't need any to *run the country*? heh.

I mean, i see both sides of the coin here. I do think there are exceptional people who are extremely informed and educated without having an actual degree from a university. Sometimes it is just a piece of paper. But I feel like that's just where our country is going--a BS/BA isn't enough and now you *need* a masters to be considered a competent individual in your line of work. And I'm sure government is that way, too. It's really difficult to make your way without some formal education. It's the perception of credibility.

As far as military goes, you can only get so high as an enlisted person. And they don't have the same leadership experience officers do, which I feel like could be very important to someone leading the nation...it's certainly possible, but it's not as heavily ingrained in the training. (although my husband has certainly worked with a lot of great leaders who are enlisted)...but then lots of officers are a-holes on power trips, too, heh. But once you get up into those upper ranks, you have very formal leadership training that I feel like would be very important (and you tend to have a degree to get up that high). My personal experience is that military people don't respect a POTUS without military experience. I suppose in many of the same ways that women say "if you don't have a uterus, stay out of mine". Anyways, I think this is just sort of the way the world is going....a degree lends itself to the positions that foster the behavior we look for in a president, i suppose. It's simply really hard to get there without a degree b/c those opportunities are not often available to those who don't have one

And frankly, if you're a lifer in the military, the military will pay for your degree, so you have zero excuse to not get one, in my opinion.

@Mrs. Jacks: Haha love the comment on GWB.

These days I feel like placing a huge emphasis on college degrees is going out of style. Maybe I'm outing myself as old or traditional, because I still think it's incredibly important. I absolutely understand that college degrees are not obtainable by many people for a variety of reasons. However, I like to believe that more education is part of the solution. Writing off education is not.

I just think about the way that I "totally understood" the world at 18 after high school compared to the way that I understand and appreciate politics, history, and international relations now. Some of that comes with age, sure, but college taught me to think more critically and deepened my understanding of the world. I think anyone would benefit from that growth, and most especially someone who would like to become our president.

This hits close to home since I'm from WI, and I am a huge supporter of Scott Walker. Needless to say, I believe he would be an amazing president, and I don't think him being without a degree would hamper his ability at all. Obviously his experience in politics should prove for something.

@MrsBrewer: oh wow, total opposites, haha!

A college degree would be nice, but I believe there are many ways to gain valid experience. Also, degrees are not everything. As someone mentioned above, Bill Gates dropped out, and I wouldn't have turned down someone with a similar level of experience. On the contrary, we have had highly degreed presidents with no executive experience whatsoever.

@ElbieKay: to me that is worse- not to have finished what was started? Just doesn't look that good for credibility IMHO.

I am curious about the other heads of state around the world and what levels of education THEY have. We should be looking ahead and around us to make this determination.

A personal requirement of mine to vote for someone as president would be for them to have at least a bachelor's degree. I strongly value higher education and the critical thinking that is encouraged as part of a college degree. I would vastly prefer someone with an advanced degree.

I know a few folks with PhD's that are lacking in common sense and wisdom, and I know a few people who only graduated from high school but have gone on to educate themselves and are incredibly intelligent despite lacking a formal post-HS degree. Frankly, a degree does not equal intelligence and it doesn't even guarantee that someone will have excellent comprehension or decent critical thinking skills.

Because of that I think that a degree should absolutely not be a requirement. Do I think that the vast majority of folks running for public office (and especially for commander in chief) will have a degree because that's just the way the world is? Yes! But I don't think someone should be disqualified solely on that basis.

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: That is a good point, I would not mind having someone like Bill Gates as president. On the other hand, I feel like the people with the intelligence of Bill Gates who are not college educated are few and far between, so that fuels my tendency to want a president to have completed higher education. But there are definitely exceptions in terms of qualified people!

For me the reason a degree and advanced degree are so Impt is the exposure to the world and different ways of thinking that a broad college education entails. It's possible to gain that experience without, but it's not very common. I can't imagine voting for a POTUS without a strong educational background.

@twodoghouse: If you're old and traditional for believing a college education is important then I'm right there with you

To answer the question, yes, absolutely. An advanced degree would be even better.

@Skadi: those presidents lived in a time for the most part where schooling was hard to come by... And certainly Lincoln dedicated himself to study voraciously (read Team of Rivals). What's going on now is this weird version of anti-intellectualism that is pretty poisonous (global climate change doesn't exist, evolution isn't real etc). Totally can't compare the past to the present!

Oh and for those who say Bill Gates might have the skill set needed to become president, I'd say he's great at what he has done, but he is not qualified to be president. You need diplomacy skills that he is not well-suited for.

@Mrs. Jacks: you echoed my own thoughts with your last 2 posts.