Barack Obama has some genuine strengths: He is good looking, he is unusually serene for a man so young, and he seems decent and straight-talking for a politician. Also he is a man comfortable in his own skin, which is refreshing coming after people like Bill Clinton and Al Gore who are still "growing up" in their fifties.
Obama's weakness is that he is inexperienced. This shows in his numerous naive and inane statements which I will be blogging about in the months to come. But what intrigues me is Obama's insinuation that experience doesn't matter. Whever Hillary chides Obama with inexperience Obama basically replies, "Look where experience has gotten us."
There is some truth in this. Abraham Lincoln had no experience and yet he became America's greatest president. Nixon was experienced and yet his presidency ended in disgrace. Reagan had limited experience and yet his two terms were a triumph. Hillary's own experience is mainly in screwing up.
But this historical record cuts both ways. Eisenhower's experience in foreign policy contributed to American power and prosperity in the 1950s. Jimmy Carter's inexperience resulted in American abandonment of the Shah of Iran and brought us the Ayatollah Khomeini. George H. W. Bush's experience helped assemble an international coalition that won the Gulf War. His son's inexperience led to some serious mistakes in the early period of the Iraq war.
Obama's non-sequitur is that experienced people have screwed up, therefore experience is irrelevant. Apply this reasoning to other areas and its absurdity becomes obvious. Consider the following extensions of Obama's argument: "The experienced CEO made a bad investment, so let's replace him with the least experienced guy at the company." "The skilled skater fell during the Olympic trials, so let's put a guy on a team who has never skated before." "The general made a flawed maneuver, so let's turn over the company to Pee Wee Herman."
The Lincoln analogy--which others have applied to Obama--is flawed. The 1860 election was a single-issue election and focused on a grand struggle that would determine what kind of country America would be. That single issue was slavery. Lincoln had been an anti-slavery man all his life and on this issue he was thoroughly experienced. He had addressed the slavery issue in a series of profound debates with Stephen Douglas, debates that are still studied in classrooms today. Lincoln was inexperienced on matters like the economy, but those issues didn't matter very much.
So what is Obama's great issue? Where are his profound meditations on it? These may be forthcoming, but so far we have seen no signs of it, and my sense is that with Obama, what we've seen is what there is. Perhaps Gertrude Stein's words are applicable: "There is no 'there' there."
Reader Comments ( Page 40 of 40)
586. have no problem with whoever you are. In fact I think that you would probably be one of the more interesting people here to talk to,
dani at 7:06PM on Mar 7th 2008
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dani, Why would you think that, and why would you be intrigued by me?
Observant at 8:55PM on Mar 7th 2008
587. dani
Maybe 'themselves' are exactly as they appear...it could happen.
Perhaps you have a point. I could be a catholic priest, 'counseling' a parishoner at this very moment. brian could be a genius - he deserves an acadamy award for best actress!
I do feel you are correct about Michelle. She plays dumb..to a degree. It's her thing, kinda like mine is immature humor.
mac at 9:47PM on Mar 7th 2008
588.
mac,
"They each have their own brand of idiocy, though similar.. different."
Yes, dont we all, that means you too puddin face...
"The main diffderence being: I'm man, baby."
Ok. Glad you have that clear.
Michelle at 10:32PM on Mar 7th 2008
589. 586. have no problem with whoever you are. In fact I think that you would probably be one of the more interesting people here to talk to,
dani at 7:06PM on Mar 7th 2008
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dani, Why would you think that, and why would you be intrigued by me?
Observant at 8:55PM on Mar 7th 2008
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Oh come on! Anyone that can fool that many "intelligent" people for as long as you have, has some smarts, and a brilliantly wicked sense of humor.
Just look at the "Obama's No Ronald Reagan" blog, everyone is worked up into a big frothy mess, and they don't even realize that they are being manipulated.
dani at 11:47PM on Mar 7th 2008
590. brian could be a genius - he deserves an acadamy award for best actress!
mac at 9:47PM on Mar 7th 2008
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Were you around when he was posting as MI, the crazy red-head? I think he was channeling Glen Close from
Basic Instinct at that time. I suspect he/she was invisioning boiling Williams rabbit.
dani at 12:14AM on Mar 8th 2008
591. Sorry
Wrong Michael Douglas movie, I meant Fatal Attraction, not Basic Instinct.
dani at 12:20AM on Mar 8th 2008
592. OBAMA "DOES" HAVE "EXPERIENCE."
HE IS "EXPERIENCED" IN FOLDING TURBANS.
EXPERIENCED IN FINDING "EAST" ON ANY MAP.
EXPERIENCED IN COACHING HIS WIFE AS SHE TRIES TO
GET A PASSING GRADE IN "ANGER MANAGEMENT 1.01."
EXPERIENCED IN DOUBLE DEALING, AS IN THE CANADA
NAFTA FIASCO.
EXPERIENCED IN "DIGGING" UP $1.9 MILLION TO BUY
HIS HOUSE BUT NOT "RECALLING" WHERE THE MOOLAH
CAME FROM.
EXPERIENCED IN BEING ENDORSED BY THE HATERS
WHO WOULD PUT SATAN TO SHAME--FARRAKHAN;
SHARPTON; HIS PASTOR.
EXPERIENCED IN TRYING TO HIDE THE MEANINGS OF
HIS GIVEN NAMES-BARACK AND HUSSEIN.
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME ENYONE OUT THERE KNEW A CHRISTIAN FATHER WHO NAMED HIS SON "BARACK", AND "HUSSEIN."
SHAKESPEARE WAS RIGHT. " WHAT'S IN A NAME?" YOU COULD HAVE NAMED OBAMA JAMES OR TOM OR HENRY; HE WOULD STILL BE A MUSLIM AND HE WOULD STILL PRAY TO THE EAST.
Strong at 8:14PM on Mar 9th 2008
593. 574. Excuse me
But am I the only one here that thinks brian, Michelle, Observant, the kookoo red-haired lady, and a few more, are fakes???
For a bunch of people that pride themselves on not believing everything they read, or are told, you sure spend alot of time arguing with people that are just baiting you. Or are there fakes on both sides, just perpetuating the blog?
dani at 5:52PM on Mar 7th 2008
This is probably beating a dead horse, but the best way to belittle a certain group would be to make them out to be complete douchebags, e.g. observant and brian and everyone else setting forward some senseless, disjointed pseudo-logic and sticking around for the backlash.
Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if these people were raging, frothing-at-the-mouth liberal atheists portraying Christians as the archetypal redneck, stubbornly set-in-their-ways, clueless lunatics they want others to think of them as. If you go back and look at some of their comments you'd probably wonder why they're not in some assisted living facility where they can run around and defecate all over their feet while battering away at some caretaker with the blunt of a fireplace stoker.
Of course a blog of this quality deserves the attention of such choice individuals. It's attention whoring at its best, especially for a guy who was relevant around a quarter of a century ago.
oaxaca at 9:13PM on Mar 9th 2008
594. Experience versus inexperience? We're asking the wrong question here. The question should be: Which candidate is more devoted to the American people versus touting their own egos? I think Mr. Obama has proven he is willing to get into the trenches and work for the people of this country who deserve it the most - the working class!
Astounded at 7:13AM on Mar 10th 2008
595. The more likely comparison is JFK. I remember his 1960 run for the nomination. All the things they say about Barack, they said about Jack.
The smart leader knows how to build a brilliant team.
The only experienced presidents are those that are running again. And look what we got in 2004. I'd rather have new blood.
Linda at 6:08PM on Mar 10th 2008
596. TO THOSE PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE THAT HILLARY HAS "EXPERIENCE."
HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THE COMMERCIAL PLANE AT 50,000FT. THE VOICE ON THE INTERCOM SAYS: "..WE ARE IN TROUBLE. 2 ENGINES ON FIRE; GAS IS LEAKING; CONTROLS ARE FROZEN; RADIO OUT. PILOT AND CO-PILOT HAD HEART ATTACKS. THE PLANE IS IN A SPIN. BUT NOT TO WORRY. THE PILOT'S WIFE IS AT THE CONTROLS."
Strong at 4:42PM on Mar 12th 2008
597. He is an actor making vaporous comments with "no beef". He is a junior senator who is now FINALLY showing cracks. He has NO foreign protocol experience, he left his home state in the midst of its largest deficit in history, he espouses "change (whatever that consists of) and is the last thing we need as a country in turmoil.
None are particularly standout, but as many have mentioned to me over the past several weeks concerning the dilemma we are in is "When Bill Clinton was in office, life was generally very good" and "we had little worry". Such is not the case today after the horrid administration of a man who should not HONESTLY have been elected the first time. We have paid a severe price since and will continue to do so. We wish to go back to better times and from many I speak to and someone with a track record. It may not be Bill but close enough. It surely looks to many to be a better option than the other two--one who will continue the awful Bush politics and maybe worse and the other, a JUNIOR senator with a questionable platform of vapor and a not so perfect track record.
Budo at 8:36AM on Mar 13th 2008