Should a US President have military service as a qualification for the office?
I'm not asking about the Constitutional requirements because those are a matter of law and military service is not a qualification. I'm positing the question for the purpose of discussion. Is military service desirable in a president?
Let's look at a few:
Barack Obama - no service
George W. Bush, Texas Air National Guard, First Lieutanant
Bill Clinton - no service
George H. W. Bush, Navy, Lieutenant, Combat, World War 2 (combat)
Ronald Reagan, Army Air Corps, Captain, World War 2
Jimmy Carter, Navy, Lieutenant
Gerald Ford, Navy Lieutenant Commander, World War 2 (combat)
Richard Nixon, Navy, Commander, World War 2
Lindon B. Johnson, Navy, Commander (combat)
John F. Kennedy, Navy, Lieutenant (combat)
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Army, General of the Army
Harry S. Truman, Army, Colonel
You can pick out your favorites. The two biggest losers in recent memory are Barack Obama (no military service) and Jimmy Carter (US Naval Academy graduate). Jimmy Carter didn't seem to be ready for the job. Barack Obama had/has an axe to grind against America as the first post-American president and he's grinding the axe. Obama couldn't have passed a security background investigation on the basis of past homosexuality, personal friendship with terrorists, affiliation with communists, inability to account for his whereabouts during prolonged periods in his life and drug use (though today since he's been president, homosexuality is no longer a factor in the US Military).
Perhaps the more appropriate question is whether or not the president could hold a security clearance if they were not president?