Cotton superior intellect, deficient achievement

Senator Tom Cotton possesses superior intellect, demonstrated allegiance to the nation, and also deficient achievements. Attention to the Senator from Arkansas comes for mixed reasons:

• He is intelligent and outspoken.

• He is a Republican conservative.

• Some advocate his promotion.

Using the criteria suggested in my book, How to Select and American President (c) 2016 All Rights Reserved, here is how Senator Cotton scores as a prospective presidential candidate. (He is not a candidate now, though some suggest his ascendancy.)

Pre-Presidential Tom Cotton

Evaluation Criterion/Score/Value

Voter’s additions: Voters may add 2, 1, or 0 additional points to the weighting to reflect their importance.
Qualifications Required by Law: 1

Home state or location from which the candidate is from: 1

IQ: H-3, M-2, L-0: 3

College Graduate BS/BA: 1

GPA: H-3, M-2, L-0: 3

Academic Honors and Distinctions: 1

Post Graduate – Masters: 2

PhD: 0

Certifications: Bar, CPA, Cert. Engineer, MD: 2

Occupation/Vocation: Law/CPA/Professional, 2: 2
CEO, 2

Other, 1

Health: Excellent, 2; Good, 1; Poor, 0: 2

Affected Class: 0

Character: 3

Leadership: 3

Continuing Education and Training: 1

Knowledge: 3

Skill: 3

Life History: 0

Platform/Agenda: 1

Relationships +1, -1, 0: 1

Political Party: 2

Values: 3

Military Experience: Veteran, 3; Officer, 2; None, 0: 3

Public Office: Vice President: 0

Public Office: Judge: 0

Department Secretary: 0

Governo: 0

U. S. Senator: 2

U. S. Representative 2: 2

Mayor: 0

State Legislator: 0

Other Public Office: 0

Private Sector CEO/President: 0

Private Sector VP: 0

Private Sector Director: 0

Manager: 1

Entrepreneur: 0

Inventor: 0

Memberships: 0

Religion: Matters, Irrelevant, Private: 1

Incumbency: Acceptable-10, Unacceptable, 0

Pre-Presidential Candidate Score: 48/83

Like other professional politicians, he has entered government without having accomplished anything in the private sector, and without having demonstrated the ability to lead a large and complex enterprise. Also comparing with Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, he has entered politics too early and there is nothing that he can do in government to enhance his credentials.

“Tom Cotton loses sight of what public service is all about 

06/07/16 09:26 AM—UPDATED 06/07/16 09:29 AM 

By Steve Benen 

Just last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was eager to pat himself on the back for a job well done. Thanks to his fine work, the Republican leader boasted, “there is no dysfunction in the Senate anymore.”

There’s quite a bit of evidence to the contrary. Consider, for example, the New York Times’ Frank Bruni’s report on Cassandra Butts’ nomination to serve as the United States ambassador to the Bahamas.

After “decades of government and nonprofit work that reflected a passion for public service,” Butts received a nomination from President Obama to a diplomatic post for which she was well qualified. Her confirmation should’ve been easy, but the Senate kept putting her nomination on the back-burner – Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), for example, blocked her as part of a tantrum against the Iran nuclear deal.

And then there’s Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who blocked Butts and the nominees for the ambassadorships to Sweden and Norway. 

Cotton eventually released the two other holds, but not the one on Butts. She told me that she once went to see him about it, and he explained that he knew that she was a close friend of Obama’s – the two first encountered each other on a line for financial-aid forms at Harvard Law School, where they were classmates – and that blocking her was a way to inflict special pain on the president. 

Bruni’s report added that Cotton’s spokesperson “did not dispute Butts’s characterization of that meeting.”

Butts died recently at age 50 of acute leukemia, which she didn’t know she had until her life was nearly over. She waited 835 days for the Senate to vote on her nomination, but the vote never came.” 

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/tom-cotton-loses-sight-what-public-service-all-about

Image credit: 21stcenturywire.com