Reply #6: There's probably something to that.

[hvn_nbr_2]

Anyone who has what it takes to become president, both in terms of appeal and ambition, isn't going to take 25 years to do it. And someone who's been around in the public consciousness for too long gets stale and/or a record and/or too many enemies. 14 is probably an arbitrary cutoff, but may be pretty close to the right number. The Lyndon Johnson exception isn't really an exception--he ran for president in 1960 and failed; he only won election as president when he was already the incumbent. Harold Stassen, anyone?

I think the emotional context of this "rule" relates to my reaction, and probably a lot of others, to Gephart last year. It was kind of like, he's been around forever. Why isn't he already president if he has what it takes?