What exactly were Obama's credentials to be president when he was elected?

he was an expert in hope, change, and being black, but not too black.

His biggest legitimate credential was that he ran a smooth & effective presidential campaign, although this verges upon circular reasoning. Another credential was that he did very well academically at Harvard, where he was editor of the Harvard Law Review (which is sort of like running a business).

He won his party's nomination for the same reason George W. Bush won his in 2000: 1) charm, 2) the right father, 3) talk of being "a uniter, not a divider," 4) willingness to talk about his religion, and 5) electability. Also, the media loved him because he was a novelty, and his organization was able to get young people involved enough to show up at the polls (which almost never happens).

Here in Iowa he got a LOT of support from being seen as the most anti-war candidate (with the exception of Rep. Kucinich). Hillary, Edwards, Biden, and Dodd all voted to authorize the war, and I didn't hear what Richardson & Gravel had to say about it, but Obama came out early against it in 2002. To many Iowa caucus-goers, this stance was a major credential, and Hillary lost a lot of support when she refused to say that she had been wrong (as Edwards did).

Surprise! Running a business is not a requirement for being president! Johnson never ran a business, Nixon never ran a business. Reagan never ran a business. Bush never ran a business. GW Bush never ran a successful business. To reiterate his "credentials" for those of you who may have been sleeping in class (sounds like that would be you) He graduated from Harvard with honors and was the editor of the Harvard Law Review. He was an attorney, He was a law professor. He was an Illinois State Senator. He was a US Senator from Illinois and he was elected by a majority of the citizens of this country to be president. Pay attention next time and you won't have to embarrass yourself with this kind of question again.

Uh... You do know that business leaders have no experience with democratic institutions, don't you? Business in modeled on monarchy. All the power and all the decision making is vested at the top. The hierarchy mimics that of a classic autocratic despot: CEO with a privy council called The Board and an advisory body akin to the House of Lords known as The Majority and Institutional Shareholders. The commoners - otherwise known as The Small Investors - have no voice but are allowed to cast votes approving the decisions of The Board. The laboring serfs have no voice at all unless they've unionized and then the Crown is at constant war with them. And you want to replace our good, old representative democracy with this? The economic sector is our servant and not our Master. We may not have as much power in our government as we'd like but we're not going to increase our power by combining the political and the economic. These have got to remain separated from one another or the country's a goner.

It was the perfect storm, the left created an economic environment that was falling, promoted falsehoods about Bush, pushed the idea that McCain was just more of the same... and obama has melanin, no matter how little, so the race card was available, and the PC card as well... he had no personal qualifications, other than his melanin.

Wait, that isn't entirely correct, he did have experience dealing with terrorists, terrorist money men, and anti- Americans... like ayers, rezko, wright, and al-Mansour... and himself, and his wife...

The only credentials he had was not being McCain or Palin. That's it. Nothing more.

He was a US congressman for 100 days before he began running for office. He had more pork than anyone else in congress except two dems. He worked as a lawyer suing banks in the name of fairness. What more can you expect

He is tall.

He is a great speaker!

He isn't bad lookin, and he is the right color!

I could have said "he was.......", but since he still is all those things....

Nothing 0bama has had a free ride all his life.

same as george washington, both liberals with a lot of brains

failed business men like bush do badly

No, none whatsoever. He was a community organizer. so basically he knows how to talk.