Location: Does Barack Obama have enough experience to be president?

Discussion: Experience isn't the issueReported This is a featured thread

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EPS601
Experience isn't the issue
Aug 4 2008, 12:44 AM EDT | Post edited: Aug 4 2008, 12:44 AM EDT
McCain has years of experience working with legislation and legislators at the national level; he doesn’t have executive or leadership experience at any governmental level unless a year commanding a training squadron in the navy and the leadership of his senate staff counts as executive or leadership experience. While not in the navy, the same is true for Obama except much of his experience is at the state level and a couple of years at the national level. But the experience issue is a diversion used by Clinton and McCain for people who want an excuse to not vote for Obama because he is: a democrat, a liberal, not liberal enough, an intellectual, too black, not black enough, not a woman, on Rush Limbaugh’s list of people who hate America, a Moslem terrorist whose Christian minister hates America.

There is an axiom in politics that says: “If your campaign is weak on the issues, go after a weakness in your opponent unrelated to the issues. If your opponent has no weakness, make one up. Then repeat it often enough to make people believe it is the main issue in the campaign.”

If experience really mattered why would an incumbent president ever be voted out of office: Clinton should have lost to the first Bush; Reagan should have lost to Carter; Carter should have lost to Ford; and Roosevelt should have lost to Hoover. In a hypothetical election, if the governor of the state with the 2nd largest population ran against the governor of the state with the 32nd largest population, experience would mean that George W. Bush should beat Bill Clinton. But are Americans as a whole better off after nearly eight years of the more experienced governor than we were after eight years of the less experienced governor?

We’ve had good presidents with little experience and bad presidents with lots of experience. The really undecided voter should focus on policies, judgment, knowledge, character and the candidate’s advisors.
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Kennedyscholar
1. RE: Experience isn't the issue
Aug 30 2008, 1:55 AM EDT | Post edited: Aug 30 2008, 1:55 AM EDT
James Madison had three years in the Va. Legislature when he was elected President. Abraham Lincoln, only two years of experience as a Congressman and he was elected President 12 years after he served that one term. The first guy gave us our rights. The second saved the Union or we would not be having this conversation. McCain's choice today for VP has no experience doing anything. She was a part time mayor and is currently governor of millions of penguins, bears, moose, and fish. McCain is saying Obama is unelectable because he is black and it doesn't matter who his VP is, anyone is more qualified than a black man. 4  out of 6 found this valuable. Do you?