Essay:Politicians Who Had a Real Career

Significant politicians with a real former career

This is a list of significant politicians who had a real career (outside of politics):

• Michele Bachmann - homeschooled her 5 children and also helped raise 23 foster children; now is a conservative candidate in the presidential race
• Jim Bunning - Hall of Fame Major League Baseball pitcher and visionary who stood against government spending
• Winston Churchill - accomplished writer, then Prime Minister of Great Britain before it became atheistic
• Jimmie Davis - accomplished singer ("You Are My Sunshine") who served two non-consecutive terms as governor of Louisiana
• Benjamin Franklin - printer, author, postmaster, inventor, and Founding Father
• Barry Goldwater - manager of family department store, air force general
• Ron Johnson - was CEO of PACUS, a plastics Mfg, before becoming U.S. Senator for Wisconsin; rejected Obama judicial nominees for his area soon after taking office
• Jack Kemp - star professional football player (quarterback) and architect of the Kemp-Roth tax cuts in the 1980s
• Nelson Mandela - lawyer
• Rand Paul - physician (non-ABO-certified ophthalmologist), now a major influence in the U.S. Senate for cutting spending
• Ron Paul - physician (obstetrician), perhaps the single most influential presidential candidate in the past decade
• Ronald Reagan - actor, president of the Screen Actors Guild, and spokesman for General Electric; architect for the defeat of communism
• Rick Scott - former CEO of a major hospital network, now the innovative Governor of Florida
• George Washington - successful military general, land surveyor and real estate investor
• Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington - General who defeated Napoleon. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and leading conservative politician of second quarter of 19th century. Legislated for emancipation of Roman Catholics in Britain and Ireland.

No clear influence in politics

• Michael Bloomberg - controls the market for stock quote machines used primarily in Wall Street institutions
• Bill Bradley - National basketball star
• Maria Cantwell - software company executive (Real Networks, who make RealPlayer)
• Neville Chamberlain - Prime Minister of the UK, formerly accountant and businessman (metal trade). His chief claim to fame is how he trusted Hitler, who played Chamberlain for the fool that he was.
• Stephane Dion Professor of Political Science at Université de Moncton and Université de Montreal.
• Clint Eastwood - actor, film director
• Mike Enzi - accountant
• Bill Foster - physicist at the government-subsidized Fermilab
• Al Franken - comedian (Saturday Night Live)
• John Glenn - Marine Corps pilot, astronaut
• Stephen Harper - Economist, head of National Citizens Coalition (Canada's main conservative think tank)
• Denis Healey - UK Chancellor, soldier (beach-master at Anzio)
• Herbert Hoover - geologist, mining engineer
• Rush Holt - assistant director of the government-subsidized Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
• Chris Huhne - journalist, including roles as business editor of The Independent and The Independent on Sunday
• Michael Ignatieff Professor at the Kennedy School of Government, author, television host.
• Glenda Jackson - double Oscar-winning actress who helped force out Tony Blair
• John Key - before becoming New Zealander Prime Minister, Key was a succesful businessman and broker for Merril Lynch.
• Steve Largent - National football star for the Seattle Seahawks
• René Lévesque - Journalist.
• Harold Macmillan - Prime Minister of the UK, previously a soldier and publisher. Ended the British Empire in Africa and strengthened the UK's nuclear defences.
• Brian Mulroney Truck driver, lawyer, head of Iron Ore Corporation.
• Barack Obama (see also below)
• Jacques Parizeau Economist.
• Condoleeza Rice - professor and Provost at Stanford University, served on the boards of several large corporations, senior fellow at the Institute of International Studies
• Mitt Romney - CEO of Bain & Company, an investment company
• Alex Salmond - First Minister of Scotland, economist and banker
• Arnold Schwarzenegger - professional bodybuilder based on steroid use, actor
• Heath Shuler - former businessman and former National Football League quarterback
• Rick Snyder - President and COO of Gateway during the 1990s, later elected Governor of Michigan in 2010
• Pierre Trudeau, lawyer, professor at Université de Montréal.

Careers outside of government that need further discussion

• Mustafa Kemal Atatürk - Army Officer and Writer. First president of Turkey and founder of the modern Turkish state.
• Jimmy Carter - peanut farmer ... or was it mostly administrative work and local government positions?
• Dwight D. Eisenhower - military general
• Reinhard Heydrich - possibly the most appalling of all the leading Nazi politicians because he planned the Final Solution; previously a naval officer.
• Vladimir Ilyich Lenin - first dictator of the Soviet Union: came from a minor affluent Russian family and became a lawyer specializing in labor rights, though he never saw a case.
• Barack Obama - claimed to organize church community groups, while not attending church himself; was a non-tenure-track part-time instructor in law at the University of Chicago.
• Rick Santorum - attorney
• George W. Bush - oil business, co-owner and managing general partner of the Texas Rangers
• Lech Walesa - Electrician and Trade Union activist who became President of Poland
• John Jay-lawyer

Obscure or otherwise inept Brits

• Michael Heseltine - UK Deputy Prime Minister, publisher
• John Major - Prime Minister, bank executive
• Stanley Baldwin - Prime Minister, businessman (metal trade), industrialist.

Other

• Vladimir Putin - former KGB operative who rose to be President of Russia.

(please add examples)