That doesn't answer his question. What about W's work experience did you not like? What about Gore and Kerry's experience did you like?
W was a failed businessman at every step, but that's not why I voted against him. At the time I was a straight ticket Democrat voter and Gore was the Democrat. Thinking like I do today, where I value executive experience and military service, there's zero chance I would have liked either candidate. One was a failed businessman, and both had dodgy (at best) military service records.
I was a fan of Kerry's military service, but candidly my vote for him was more of a vote against Bush as I was a bitter liberal for almost the entire 4 years following the 2000 election fiasco.
I don't think anyone applies the same logical tests to candidates throughout their life, and I know I haven't in the past and will almost certainly change in the future. I think someone famous once described their evolving political stances as "nuanced." The one that I've been consistent on since 2008 (and somewhat in 2004) is that I think our commander in chief should have served in the military, preferably with distinction (I grew up in a military family and have always valued that). And like I said earlier I value positive executive experience, either at the political or private level. Serving as a governor, or successfully running a decent sized business (I'm talking more than a sole proprietorship) are things I look for here. Failing that, I look for someone who has worked in public service at a high level (State Legislature or higher) for a decent amount of time. Do I have a bit of a bias against what I perceive as "Ivory Tower Liberals?" Tough to say that I don't given how much I clearly value work experience outside of academia. I think Warren, due to her focus on bankruptcy law and consumer protection over the years, is unique equipped to be a leader in assaulting the Wall Street establishment and a champion of the middle class. That doesn't make her qualified to be the president. It makes her an ideal candidate for Congress.
2008 was a slam dunk decision for me. I've respected John McCain for quite some time, although a great deal of that was diminished by his selection of Sarah Palin. Pretty much any candidate was more qualified to be president in 2008 than Barack Obama was. And I'd have voted for McCain over just about any Democrat candidate possible.
2012 was 2 candidates who had zero military experience, but one who had an exceptional record of executive experience. I still don't really like Romney, but again I thought he was more qualified to be president than Obama, although Obama had 4 years of on the job training to lean on which I do think matters somewhat.
If you're asking what changed between 2004 and 2008 to take me away from being a straight ticket Democrat voter: that's when I got married, bought a home, and started having kids. I stopped being a straight ticket voter and found myself voting for issues and candidates that I thought best reflected my interests.
Experience matters when trying to choose between 2 candidates, whether they are from the same party (consider the Clinton vs Obama primary where Clinton harped on Obama's lack of experience), or from different parties. Is work experience the only criteria? No. Is it a valid test? Absolutely. We need to get away from anointing candidates just because they made an impressive speech. When the speech is given by the junior senator from a state, and has little substance to back it up, it's a huge leap to then claim that person should be president. Warren is certainly trying, and I appreciate that, but that doesn't make her worthy of the highest office in the country. I think she knows that, and is far more focused on doing her work at the legislative level and I hope she's successful. I'd be pretty stoked if 6 or 10 years from now she is running for President on a platform of having actually led a middle class revolution.
My ideal candidate right now would be a champion of the middle class (Warren certainly nails that, and I'm very much a fan of her policies), who successfully ran a small to medium sized business for a number of years, and served in the military.
Right now I'm seeing no candidates on the horizon that match that ideal. There is absolutely zero chance that I vote for Hillary or Jeb. I'm really not excited about any of the candidates right now.