Even for a second, if you tune your ear to the radio these days you'll hear something about the upcoming elections. Inexperience, age, gender, family values are all up for debate and personal opinion has amazingly transformed into experiential wisdom. We all seem to have an idea of "what it takes" to be the next president/vice president of the U.S. But in fact, we don't.Ability is measured in layers. Its the same old "peeling an onion" analogy, where the complexity of a job and candidate's matching skill set lie deep beneath the folds. From our own daily work/leisure perspective, we only see the superficial; the face, the job description, the relative difference from the last 8 years. We don't see the inhuman stamina necessary to function at peak levels through all hours of the day, the sacrifice of personal time and family life on a campaign trail, the burden and responsibility of knowing how every decision you make may change the lives of millions of people. Our day-to-day lives are nothing like that of the candidates. We can't possibly understand the layers beneath such a career choice. Just by getting to this stage of the game, the candidate has revealed their ability.
Bottomline: On a more grounded level, think of how you felt right out of college coming into the work world. The language of business, science, technology, or whatever career you chose to venture into was the same then as it is now with very minor modifications. Five, ten, twenty years later, you simply understand that language on a much deeper level.
Think of any concept you were familiar with in your 20s, say "community". The mental connections you've made over time, through effort and in seeking knowledge give that word a lot more intrinsic meaning now than they did before. You have layers of personal growth associated with your vocabulary. Translate that to the presidency and you get the smallest hint of "what it takes" to be at that level.