Rich Rubino: In Politics, a Prestigious Education and Political Experience can be a Liability

American politics is unlike any other profession in that graduating from an esteemed institution of higher education and having direct experience in politics can actually be a liability rather than an asset. If an applicant for a job in most other fields earned a degree from a prestigious institution and had years of related work experience, it would be foolhardy for the applicant not to emphasize these achievements. This is not the case however when running for public office. When running for public office it is usually customary to deemphasize these achievements. In the upside-down world of politics, the venerated prestigious degree can be a symbol of elitism, and experience in the field can signify that the candidate is a career politician who has lost touch with the needs of the people.

In the last presidential election, both the Democratic party and Republican party nominated candidates with advanced degrees from Harvard University. Mitt Romney holds both an MBA degree and a law degree from Harvard. However, this was not a selling point of his campaign. In fact, Romney tried to tether Barack Obama to Harvard because Obama earned a law degree from the school. As the presumptive GOP nominee, Romney even derided Obama for taking advice from the Harvard faculty lounge and asserted: “We have a president, who I think is a nice guy, but he spent too much time at Harvard, perhaps.”

via Rich Rubino: In Politics, a Prestigious Education and Political Experience can be a Liability.