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The nations governors assemble in the White House today to hear a policy speech from President Obama. It will be serious and potentially boring stuff, and as the statehouse chiefs sit in the impressive surroundings, perhaps the discussion of Department of Homeland Security funding will fade away and theyll begin day-dreaming. What if it were them up there at the podium as president? Why not arent statehouses the training ground for the nations chief executives?

Obama himself mentioned this in brief remarks at a dinner on Sunday.

Its wonderful to see you all here tonight, he said to the assembled members of the National Governors Association. Harry Truman once called the presidency an enlarged governorship. Of course, a few of you are hoping that he was right.

He got some laughs with that. Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin was in the room hes a likely 2016 Republican candidate. On Sunday he even posted a selfie with his son Alex that was taken in a White House corridor. Perhaps Hail to the Chief was playing in his head at that moment.

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey was there, too. Hes a Walker rival and recently completed a term as head of the Republican Governors Association. Hes traveled the nation raising money for his fellow GOP state leaders. He probably looked at Governor Walker and grumbled to himself that somebody needs to wait their turn.

As for Democrats, Martin OMalley wasnt there, because his tenure as governor of Maryland recently expired. But he seems to be preparing to run against Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic primaries, which will perhaps be a thankless task. Other former governors who are all but certain to run include Jeb Bush, who ran Florida a while back, and Mike Huckabee, ditto in Arkansas.

So its certainly possible that an ex-governor will indeed occupy the White House in 2016. And if thats the case, it will bolster the occupations record. It is indeed the most common of pre-presidential careers, barely.

Seventeen people who served at one point as a governor have become president, according to the Rutgers Center on the American Governor. Thats 39 percent of the total number of presidents. (Which is 44, if you didnt know.)

Thomas Jefferson was the first. He was governor of Virginia. Besides Jefferson, Presidents James Monroe and John Tyler served as Virginia governors.

But the Old Dominion, despite its many Founding Fathers, is not the state with the most governors. Thats New York, which had four: Martin Van Buren, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Roosevelt.

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Obama meets governors. Is his successor in the crowd? (+video)