Trump's Resume Unlike Any Previous US Leader

There are a few well-worn paths to the U.S. presidency.  Hillary Clinton is following one of them.  Donald Trump is not.

Trump has never been vice president, elected to the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives, or served as the governor of one of the 50 U.S. states.  Of the 43 people who have been president, 37 of them held at least one of those positions prior to taking office.

For the six presidents with no major elected office on their resume, being a war hero like George Washington or Dwight Eisenhower or a Cabinet secretary like William Taft or Herbert Hoover was enough to mount a successful campaign.  Neither Trump nor Clinton were in the military.

Once officially selected as the Republican nominee in July, Trump will be the party's second consecutive candidate with a business background.  Mitt Romney ran in 2012, losing to President Barack Obama, but in addition to being a businessman he had also served a term as the governor of Massachusetts.

For Clinton, her credentials include both a major elected office and a Cabinet position.  She represented New York in the Senate until becoming Obama's secretary of state during his first term.  Obama was also a senator before running for president, as is Clinton's Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders.

But while Clinton's path was once a near certain way to become president, those days are distant American history