Essay:Politicians Who Had a Real Career

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

• Mitt Romney - CEO of Bain & Company, an investment company
• Michael Bloomberg - founded huge financial empire.
• 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
• Stephane Dion Professor of Political Science at Université de Moncton and Université de Montreal.
• Benjamin Franklin - printer, author, postmaster, inventor
• Stephen Harper - attorney.
• Denis Healey - UK Chancellor, soldier (beach-master at Anzio)
• Michael Ignatieff Professor at the Kennedy School of Government, author, television host.
• 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
• René Lévesque - Journalist.
• Brian Mulroney Truck driver, head of Iron Ore Corporation.
• Jacques Parizeau Economist.
• Rand Paul - physician (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
• Alex Salmond - First Minister of Scotland, economist and banker
• Rick Scott - former CEO of a major hospital network, now the innovative Governor of Florida
• Pierre Trudeau, lawyer, professor at Université de Montréal.
• George Washington - successful military general, land surveyor and real estate investor
• Margaret Thatcher - industrial chemist.
• John Key - before becoming New Zealander Prime Minister Key was a succesful businessman and broker for Merril Lynch.

No clear influence in politics

• Maria Cantwell - software company executive (Real Networks, who make RealPlayer)
• 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
• Herbert Hoover - geologist, mining engineer
• Rush Holt - assistant director of the government-subsidized Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
• Barack Obama (see also below)
• Condoleeza Rice - professor and Provost at Stanford University, served on the boards of several large corporations, senior fellow at the Institute of International Studies
• Arnold Schwarzenegger - professional bodybuilder based on steroid use, actor
• Rick Snyder - President and COO of Gateway during the 1990s, later elected Governor of Michigan in 2010
• Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington - 19th century soldier. Defeated Napoleon. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Careers outside of government that need further discussion

• Jimmy Carter - peanut farmer ... or was it mostly administrative work and local government positions?
• Dwight D. Eisenhower - military general
• 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

Obscure or otherwise inept Brits

• Michael Heseltine - UK Deputy Prime Minister, publisher
• John Major - Prime Minister, bank executive
• Harold Macmillan - Prime Minister, soldier, printer.
• Neville Chamberlain - Prime Minister, accountant, businessman (metal trade).
• Stanley Baldwin - Prime Minister, businessman (metal trade), industrialist.

(please add examples)