[CalChris]

Brown still basically runs San Francisco. He certainly ran it when Rose Pak was still alive and Ed Lee is definitely his guy. Outside of SF he's certainly knowledgable but I doubt he has any pull in Sacto. Not with Jerry, not with Gavin.

Kingmaker, no. And Brown is definitely not a kingmaker if you want to run statewide. I doubt he has any pull in LA or the Central Valley. Any at all.

Frankly, this bores me. If Altman wants to run for office, he should start a little lower and get a little experience. At 32, I don't count a social networking startup and an incubator for much of a resume especially with respect to running the government of the 6th largest economy in the world.

[Lordarminius]

> At 32, I don't count a social networking startup and an incubator for much of a resume especially with respect to running the government of the 6th largest economy in the world.

I came here to say the same thing. I am not American but politics is pretty much the same all over the world nowadays.

Effective leadership in political positions demands specialized knowledge and skills developed over long periods of time. This is so often ignored. Socio-economic problems do not succumb to neat textbook solutions. The real world is messy

To add to my previous points.

Many people labor under the misconception that solutions are lacking to many problems they face in their communities and the job of the politician is to magically conjure them. This is false.

There are some issues with no clear way to solve them but these are the minority. For the vast majority of problems(think teacher shortages, healthcare costs, pollution, government corruption etc) solutions exist: it is the political will and organization to implement them that is lacking.

[jacques_chester]

It is typical in these situations to cast the establishment as a stuffy force for evil, a damp quilt blanket that muffles exciting possibilities.

And sometimes it is. Sometimes seniority beats sanity, sometimes self-interest beats public interest.

But, taking the view from the other side, the establishment sees an endless parade of bold, brilliant, I'm-the-exception types running up to knock it down. In such a position they might be forgiven, after the dozenth encounter with yet another visionary, for rolling their eyes.

And I imagine that the California establishment has seen one or two techno-utopians by now.

[CalChris]

Yes, but we've also seen more than our share of entertain-opians. Other than being able to open at the box office they brought no ability to a hard problem.

[jacques_chester]

Even they belonged to major parties.

[Xcelerate]

> At 32, I don't count a social networking startup and an incubator for much of a resume especially with respect to running the government of the 6th largest economy in the world.

At the rate things are currently going, I'd be happy with someone having that kind of résumé for president.

[msabalau]

Jerry Brown first became governor at the age 36. Founding a company that sold for $40M and running the most significant incubator in the world seems about as impressive as a few years as Secretary of State and a little lawyering.

[gotothedoctor]

Sure, Sam Altman is impressive, but seems like you are underplaying Brown's actual experience--and I am not sure why it'd comparable anyway?

As the son of a beloved governor, Brown not only grew up in state politics, but also devoted his career to law & government. After winning a few Democratic party elections, he ran for & served on LA Community College Board (which had just been created...coincidentally, his father actually created the UC system when he was governor) & then ran for & won the statewide office that would best prepare him to serve as governor.

Altman has no law degree or legislative experience, no background or education in government, and has never run for office. Founding a company and running an incubator is fantastic, but not sure why it'd be comparable to the legal, government or legislative experience Brown had when he first ran for governor.

[Apocryphon]

I was going to say, Altman should wait a few years and run for mayor of SF.