Which qualifications needed for president?

Lots of senators run for president.

Few win.

It's been nearly half a century since a sitting senator was elected president. Though that streak's about to end, Senate experience clearly isn't a presidential requirement: Only 15 out of the 42 men who have reached the office were ever senators.

Yet Hillary Clinton, seven years and two months into her first elective office as a U.S. senator, has somehow cornered the perceived "experience" market in the extended Democratic-nomination scrap. That's despite Barack Obama serving nearly eight years in the Illinois Senate in addition to his three years and two months in the U.S. Senate.

Unsuccessful 2008 Democratic White House candidates Joe Biden (35 years) and Chris Dodd (27 years) have much more U.S. Senate experience than Mrs. Clinton. So does our state's most recent former senator, Ernest F. Hollings (38 years). So did our state's second most recent former senator, the late Strom Thurmond (48 years).

So does looming Republican presidential nominee John McCain (21 years).

Then again, Mrs. Clinton's the only presidential candidate who served as a presidential spouse — an experience she touts, with a straight face, as a presidential qualification. That first ladyship stint did put her on a prime perch from which to select an easy 2000 Senate-seat target.

At least Laura Bush isn't shopping for a Senate seat.

While Senate service hasn't been a uniform presidential prerequisite, military service almost has — until the last couple of decades.

The modern decline in that need for veteran status pleases Clinton supporter Gloria Steinem. Last weekend in Austin, Texas, Ms. Steinem, a prominent feminist who's evidently OK with a woman marrying her way into nepotistic political opportunity, ridiculed McCain's lengthy POW ordeal in Vietnam, adding: "I am so grateful that she [Clinton] hasn't been trained to kill anybody. And she probably didn't even play war games as a kid. It's a great relief from Bush in his jump suit and from Kerry saluting."

Steinem later told a New York Observer reporter that "from George Washington to Jack Kennedy and PT-109, we have behaved as if killing people is a qualification for ruling people."

Hey, Gloria: If you try that line on Osama bin Laden, remember to wear a veil.

Back to commander-in-chief qualifications: U.S. presidents must be born in the U.S. or a U.S. military base outside the U.S. McCain is eligible because he was born on a U.S. base in the Panama Canal Zone. California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger is ineligible because he was born in Austria. That's a lousy rule.

A lousy habit: Buying dubious "experience" pitches.

Some pre-presidential credentials of presidents who were never senators — and were never married to presidents:

--Abraham Lincoln: Signed up to fight Indians, never got the chance. Railroad lawyer. House member. Lost 1858 Senate bid in Illinois to Stephen Douglas. Beat him for presidency two years later.

--U.S. Grant: Storekeeper. Rose from previously undistinguished military career to full command of Union forces in Civil War.

--Theodore Roosevelt: Naturalist. Conservationist. Historian. Assistant Secretary of Navy. Led triumphant Spanish-American charge up San Juan Hill. New York governor. Vice president.

--Franklin D. Roosevelt: Never served in military. Secretary of Navy. New York governor.

--Dwight Eisenhower: Victorious Supreme Allied Commander in Europe in World War II.

--Ronald Reagan: Movie actor. Classified for "limited service" in military due to nearsightedness. Served in Army Air Force 1st Motion Picture Unit in World War II. California governor.

--George H.W. Bush: Navy fighter pilot in World War II. Lost 1964 Senate bid in Texas to Ralph Yarborough. House member. U.S. ambassador to U.N. Chief of U.S. liaison office to China. CIA director. Vice president.

--Bill Clinton: Never served in military. Arkansas governor.

--George W. Bush: Oil man. Baseball-team owner. Served, but not on active duty, as fighter pilot in Texas and Alabama National Guards. Texas governor.

See, resumes don't determine if you'll be elected president — or if you'll be a good one.

What does get you elected president these days? Getting enough votes in primaries (but not necessarily the most in all primaries combined) to win enough delegates (and super delegates?) to get nominated, then getting enough popular votes in the general election (but not necessarily a popular-vote majority) to get an electoral-vote majority.

But don't just evaluate presidential qualifications. Evaluate yourself:

How qualified are you for your job?

Frank Wooten is associate editor of The Post and Courier. His e-mail is wooten@postandcourier.com.