Known points in Picard's favor for getting a prime assignment:
-Active and upwardly mobile early on in his career
-Commanded a starship in deep space with supposed distinction
-Renaissance man with a good grasp of assorted sciences
-Close friends with Admiral Quinn
-Skilled diplomat
-Unwilling to get tied down or compromised by personal relations
Known points that make Picard less than ideal:
-Reckless hellraiser early in his career
-Was stuck with a single small and obscure starship for much of his known career, and then lost her
-Engages in irrelevant dilettantism
-Only made one known top level acquaintance during the nine years after losing his ship
-Hates/fears kids and familial commitment
What Picard did during those missing nine years would be a key fact in determining if he's got the right stuff. Perhaps he made much more connections than just this one Admiral - perhaps his later good rapport with people like Haden or Hanson or Nechayev actually dates back to his pre-E-D days. Or perhaps he performed noted but oddly unmentioned heroics of military or scientific sort.
What Picard did before commanding the Stargazer is another question mark. Supposedly, he didn't command any starships before that one, but he could have engaged in lots of strange and important stuff. We have no canonical idea when he got command of that vessel or how long he stayed in command of her - we only know the day he lost the ship.
The assorted novels that answer these two questions don't give enough justification for Picard's ascent to E-D command IMHO. They even suggest Picard's commitment to Starfleet wavered, which should be a honking big minus here.
Timo Saloniemi
