CarloSW2:
A friend of mine was fired from his job 8 years ago for political B.S. reasons. He took a job at another company but lo and behold, the new boss is buddies with his old one.
So he quickly got demoted from his professional spot to a crap entry level spot in phone sales, where he's been ever since. He periodically goes to Human Resources and begs to get a position that uses his skills but they say "What are you doing here? Why do you stay?". Catbert is a perfect caracature of Human "Resources" people; they really are sadistic and they are enjoying keeping my friend down- I'm sure they get a little extra spring in their step after he goes in there and whines. They look at skilled positions as something even monkeys can do- maybe they feel like all positions are something monkeys can do because theirs is??? As evidenced by their replacement of my friend with FOUR PEOPLE (prime examples of nepotism and political favoritism) who couldn't put out the quantity and quality of work that he alone did! It was WORTH IT to them, to put four extra people on payroll, just to carry their grudge. Their position is, they don't so much care about a person's credentials and qualifications- what matters is do they like you or not?
I relay this story because it's probably the same way for Presidents in that we have had some real buffoons in office and their credentials and qualifications were highly suspect; what mattered was, do we like them and can they "rally the troops"?