Executive Experience and the Presidency

Here's a chart showing the executive experience of U. S. Presidents prior to becoming president.

For some time I've been thinking that the position of Governor is a greater experience for a would be President than other political offices. I had also wondered how many former Presidents were Generals.

The chart is interesting - I'm not going to pretend to be able to give deep analysis. Just a few observations:

• John Kennedy was the last President to have had only experience deriving from the Senate
• Prior to JFK, the previous President to have had not executive experience was Abraham Lincoln
• 4 of the last 5 Presidents had experience as Governors
• Eisenhower was the last General to become President