On Fri, 1 Jan 2010 10:54:36 -0500 Doug Henwood <dhenw...@panix.com> writes: > > On Jan 1, 2010, at 10:35 AM, Jim Farmelant wrote: > > > That would be an interesting issue to look into. > > How does the US ruling class go about recruiting > > political talent? How were people like > > Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and > > Barack Obma able to rise to the > > top so fast? What agencies are > > responsible for scouting out, > > recruiting and grooming talented > > young people in the interests of > > the ruling class? > > Party leadership - political establishment plus major contributors - > > would be a start. Supplemented by the inner pundit class (e.g., > William Kristol's "discovery" of Sarah Palin).
All that is true but there seems to be more to it than that, at least in some cases like Clinton or Obama. Both of them seemed to be groomed for higher things from quite an early age. Of course in Clinton's case it didn't hurt that he was already thinking about his future "political viability" at the age of 19, but it does seem that some of the ruling class talent scouts already had their eye on by the time he was doing his Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford. And likewise with Obama, with his early stint as a "community organizer." And I remember back in the 1970s when all the conspiracy theorists were taking about Jimmy Carter's relationship with the Trilateral Commission. Of course most of that was the usual cracked pottery, but I don't think they were completely nuts. It does seem to me that back when Carter was governor of Georgia, and otherwise little known outside his state, important people within the ruling class had their eye on him as a possible future candidate for national office and were grooming him for that possibility. And in Carter's case, I think his naval career had some importance here too. Carter has always made much of the fact that he was a protege of Admiral Hyman Rickover, a figure who was not too popular with most of the navy brass, but who was politically very well connected. That suggests to me that even with Carter, he may have made early on some contacts that would serve him well later on. Jim F. > > Doug > > _______________________________________________ > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis > > ____________________________________________________________ Senior Assisted Living Put your loved ones in good hands with quality senior assisted living. Click now! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=AzlJqx3ZtRrC1AHzLKjuzwAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASUQAAAAA= _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
