Mark Everson ran the IRS, wants to bring back the draft and has a love child. Now he wants to be president.

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There comes a moment in the career of many government bureaucrats when they sit across the table from a high-ranking elected official — the president, even—and think, You know, I’m just as smart as these guys. “You understand they’re just another person,” says Mark Everson, who served in the Reagan administration and as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service under George W. Bush. “You ask yourself, Do you like this? Do you think you qualify?” The answers he arrived at — yes and yes — led him, after a long period of soul-searching, to the Lincoln Dinner of the Linn County (Iowa) Republican Committee on May 1, where he shared a dais with the only other presidential candidate who showed up, an Indiana contractor named Mike Petyo. Because the hard truth about presidential politics is that while you may be just as smart as the guys who win, you almost certainly aren’t as famous, charismatic or rich.

There comes a moment in the career of many government bureaucrats when they sit across the table from a high-ranking elected official — the president, even—and think, You know, I’m just as smart as these guys. “You understand they’re just another person,” says Mark Everson, who served in the Reagan administration and as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service under George W. Bush. “You ask yourself, Do you like this? Do you think you qualify?” The answers he arrived at — yes and yes — led him, after a long period of soul-searching, to the Lincoln Dinner of the Linn County (Iowa) Republican Committee on May 1, where he shared a dais with the only other presidential candidate who showed up, an Indiana contractor named Mike Petyo. Because the hard truth about presidential politics is that while you may be just as smart as the guys who win, you almost certainly aren’t as famous, charismatic or rich.

Every presidential election attracts its share of fringe, novelty and long-shot candidates, who are in it for reasons of ego (Ladies and gentlemen, the next president of the United States … Donald Trump!) or to promote their careers as authors or lecturers (Speaker Gingrich will be signing copies of his last two dozen books after his address) or to advance an ideological agenda (We hear you, Bernie Sanders!). MSNBC researchers have compiled a list of more than 300 Republicans who have filed with the Federal Elections Commission to run for president in 2016; by a more conservative count, the Politicks.org website lists 14 declared Republican candidates who possess, at a minimum, a functioning website. That leaves out likely but undeclared candidates such as Scott Walker and Rick Perry but includes Petyo (whose site prominently features a poem by his sons entitled “The Things We Love About Our Mom”) and a Florida investment adviser named Brian Russell, who thinks 2016 will be his year, because that’s when he turns 35.

Everson (pronounced “EE-verson”) stands out in this company, at least partly because, trim and handsomely graying at 60, he is perhaps the most presidential looking of the bunch. He has had an impressive if unspectacular career in government, business and the nonprofit sector, which has left him affluent (with a net worth of around $3 million) if not exactly wealthy enough to run for president as a hobby. He raised a family and suffered through an embarrassing public divorce that in a less forgiving era would have stifled his political career before it began. Now he is seeking to apply what he learned — about government and about life — to solve the daunting problems facing the nation, because, well, he’s just as smart as those other guys.

He has six main planks in his platform, and he had four and a half minutes to get through them in his speech to the Linn County Republicans. County co-chair Brett Mason says Everson’s talk was “well-received” by the 75 guests assembled at the Elmcrest Country Club. The issues that got the best response were a proposal to take politics out of the presidency by limiting officeholders to a single (possibly five- or six-year) term and to reinstate the draft, “so the rich and powerful share the sacrifices required to secure our freedom.”

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/mark-everson-ran-the-irs-wants-to-bring-back-the-118958247646.html