How much experience does one need to campaign?

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Sometimes being the aspirant of multiple dreams that I am, I am curious with how many years of experience is needed to campaign at the top of the latter for president of the USA in a major party.

Well, if it is any indication, the youngest president in the US was Theodore Roosevelt, who was 42 at the time of his inauguration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pr ... tes_by_age

The only qualifications to be president are that you be at least 35 years in age, be a natural born US citizen, and to have been a resident of the US for at least 14 years.

Hey, what about 'other' important things?

I have spent a lot of time studying this. In a nutshell, you need lots of money, or at least the ability to fundraise lots and lots of money. In the past, the federal government has provided campaigns with matching funds up to $45 million, if memory serves me correctly, so long as you cap total campaign spending. None of the major party candidates took the matching funds, and all candidates spend in excess of $100 million. The 2012 campaign was the first to pass $1 billion in total spending.

Of course, money isn't everything. You need great political acumen and charisma. The vast majority were either governors or vice presidents, although a few have come from other career tracks. And you need to be willing to put up with 20 hour days, your personal life under the media microscope, and the scorn of other politicians, other governments, and of course the electorate. And you don't get a day off.

You need a network. Actually, you need at least four networks.

You need a network of funding support--people with deep pockets who believe that your decision making with benefit their interests.

You need a network of political supoprt--people who will publicly support you and create the impression that your ideas will have traction in Congress.

You need a network of popular support--people who will wave signs at rallies, volunteer in your campaign offices, drive people to polling stations and do the millions of hours of unpaid work that are required in a successful campaign.

You need a network of communications support--people who will get your message out there.

You don't need experience per se, but without it, how are you going to build these networks?

Harvard
Masons

Its a step up from car sales and acting

The only official qualifications, you mean.

It also takes a lot of money: about $203,000,000 for Mr. Romney's 2012 campaign, and about $143,000,000 for Mr. Obama's.

Although spending the most money is no guaranty of winning.

What the hell? How does anybody earn some of that by fundraising? I assume you'd need a upper-middle income as a base cost though.

A whole lot of $10,000 per-person rubber chicken dinners in hotel ballrooms scattered across the country.

So it isn't even remotely possible is it?