Obama Plays The Experience Card

In an apparent calculated act of derring-do, Obama declares the virtue of inexperience. Gotta love it!   ;-)

Personal footnote of recollection: I recall Jimmy Carter running the "anti-Washington" (i.e., lack of Capitol Hill experience) campaign in '75-76. You know what, it worked.

The problem was, once JC sent all the reigning bureaucrats & policy wonks home, he was left with an assembly of newbies who didn't understand how to get things done in DC. The result was a very smart guy, genuine humanitarian, and erstwhile successful leader presided over a disastrous presidency, fraught with innumerable policy failures (see the Shah of Iran, double-digit inflation, & the outrageous Interest/Mortgage rate morass) and public relations gaffes (remember the killer rabbit, and the failed helicopter gambit).

Fortunately for him he was able to live long enough and subsequently do enough good deeds to distance himself from most of an unremarkable tenure as a one-term president, followed by a resounding defeat by that cowboy actor Teflon guy.

Of course none of that has anything to do with Obama...except in the unlikely even he prevails, let's hope he doesn't take that inexperience thing too far. As W constantly reminds us, getting to the White House is one thing (after all, he's done it twice), providing prudent and effective leadership once there is quite another.

'06!
Posted on Mon, Aug. 20, 2007



The following story on the subject appeared in today's news:


DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS DEBATE IN IOWA
Obama positsvirtue of inexperience
What rivals criticize as naivete, he presents as break from status quo
MIKE GLOVER
Associated Press

AP Photo
Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., talk on stage during a break in the ABC News Democratic candidates debate, Sunday, Aug. 19, 2007, at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
DES MOINES, Iowa --Democrat Barack Obama on Sunday tried to parlay his relative lack of national experience into a positive attribute, chiding his rivals for adhering to "conventional thinking" that led the country to war and has divided the country.
In their latest debate, the candidates also said they favored more federal action to address economic woes that have resulted from a housing slump and tighter credit. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson called the current financial crisis "the Katrina of the mortgage-lending industry."
Prodded by moderator George Stephanopoulos at the outset of the debate, Obama's rivals critiqued his recent comments on Pakistan and whether he would meet with foreign leaders -- including North Korea's head of state -- without conditions.
"To prepare for this debate I rode in the bumper cars at the state fair," the first-term senator from Illinois said to laughter and applause from the audience at Drake University.
The debate capped an intense week of politicking in Iowa, an early voting state in the process of picking a nominee. The Iowa State Fair is a magnet for White House hopefuls each presidential election.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., directly addressing a question about Obama's relative inexperience, said: "You're not going to have time in January of '09 to get ready for this job." Dodd has served in Congress for more than 30 years.
Former Sen. John Edwards said Obama's opinions "add something to this debate." But Edwards said politicians who aspire to be president should not talk about hypothetical solutions to serious problems.
"It effectively limits your options," Edwards said.
Obama said he could handle the rigors of international diplomacy and noted that many in the race, including Dodd, Edwards and Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Joe Biden, voted to authorize the Iraq war in 2002.
"Nobody had more experience than Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney and many of the people on this stage that authorized this war," Obama said. "And it indicates how we get into trouble when we engage in the sort of conventional thinking that has become the habit in Washington."
The debate, hosted and broadcast nationally by ABC, took place less than five months before Iowa caucus-goers begin the process of selecting the parties' presidential nominees.