What Kind of 'Experience'?

[Terri]

By Thomas Sowell
February 5, 2008

The front-runners in both political parties -- that is, Hillary Clinton and John McCain -- are making "experience" their big talking point. But what kind of "experience"?

Both have been around in politics for decades. But just what did they accomplish -- and how did it benefit the country?

Whether in Arkansas or in Washington, Hillary Clinton has spent decades parlaying her husband's political clout into both money and power. How did that benefit anybody but the Clintons?

For those people whose memories are short, go on the Internet and look up Whitewater, the confidential raw FBI files on hundreds of Republican politicians that somehow -- nobody apparently knows how -- ended up in the Clinton White House illegally.

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[Ryno]

McCain is a Wash. D.C insider. So is Billary. Obama has the most liberal record in the senate worse then Kerry, Boxer, Feingold, Kennedy, and no experience.

The candidate with the most Qualifications is ROMNEY.

[autocad]

The good old days when the debate was Bush(sr.), Clinton, and Perot,

Perot was asked about his experience.
His answer "What kind of experience do you NEED, to ring up a 4 Trillion dollar deficit?"

Everybody applauded, I remember watching that debate.

Hillary's experience? Greasy (as in grease the palm with money, my opinion).

[Cynical Pete]

A very true and profound article. The USA is facing destruction from within. Business as usual in Washington is bringing about chaos in America.

[candles]

Senator McCain's trump card is his military experience. Some say his military experience is especially valuable when we are under threat from terrorists. But is it?

John McCain's military service was both honorable and heroic. But let's not confuse that with experience relevant to being President of the United States.

John McCain was a naval aviator, an important and demanding job.

This is not the same as running the WH, not even close.

[Pass The Word]

The facts remain. None of those running have any significant amount of experience that would qualify them for the Presidency. Yeah, they know the workings, but nothing else. This article hits the nail on the head for both inept parties. Where have all the statesmen gone? God Help the USA!!!!

[FlaJim]

This nonsense of McCain's military experience as being relevant is overshadowed by the facts.

He nearly flunked out before he was even commissioned as an ensign. Thanks to family influence, he eventually passed. After mediocre ratings while training to fly, he somehow quickly achieved a command post and not because he was a leader of men. Family influence? Both his father and grandfather were admirals.

As for the Dems, Billary couldn't inspire a shoeshine boy unless they had the goods on him, and B. Husein Obama inspires one to wonder how a wet-eared punk like him ever could be considered presidential material, much less a senator.

The MSM are trying to convince us we have no choice but to vote for a weak-kneed liberal. Don't fall for it.

[Joninokc007]

When Hillary speaks about experience, she is really talking about Bill's experience.

Unfortunately, we may never see Hillary use any of Bill's experience, since Hillary can lose Bill to health issues, since he has already had a heart attack and been within spitting distance of a near death experience.

There is also no certanty that Hillary might not throw Bill out due to some conflict over who is running the country, since Bill has indicated this will really be his third term, and Hillary seems to think she is more than Bill's stalking horse for the White House.

Finally, Bill may get sick of being out of the limelight and just divorce Hillary, if she freezes him out of power, and we get one for the price of two.

John McCain stands on his experience, but most of his experience seems to lie in fighting with his own party, and the party President, and being a brake to conservative movement.

If Senator McCain gets in, his natural combativeness might be handy in dealing with the excesses of the liberal Congress, but it might also lead to four years of nothing getting done, in a war moving to global war.

[clovers]

Thomas Sowell, as always, is the voice of reason, logic and intelligence. I know that his age and personal inclinations would preclude his ever running for office - but that man would get my vote in a heartbeat. I've been a Thomas Sowell fan for years!

[rednail47]

The primary process has already washed away most of the candidates in both party's and the only hope is a brokered convention instead of this American Idol circus. I think the concept of experience is over rated as far as the presidency is concerned because there is no job like it anywhere on the planet. We are all trying to forecast the future and the past,at best, can only be an indicator of what a president might do. Who could foresee that an Annapolis grad and former Governor would turn into such a weakling when confronted by a fifth rate nation. Yet we survived Jimmy Carter and his incompetence led us to Ronald Reagan. It was the gross incompetence, bordering on negligence, of David Dinkins that gave NYC Rudy and it was Rudy that brought NYC back from the snake pit it was fast becoming under the Democrats. It was after those ten fools came to NYC and murdered them selves that Rudy was even noticed outside of New York. He did wonderful things here but running the country is not the same as running a city, even one as big as NYC.
Can we risk four years of the war on the middle class by the Clinton's or let the black McGovern allow the psychopaths to send more weak willed and gullible bombers into our midst's?

Today I voted for McCain because I feel I can trust him. Romney is too slick for me. If McCain gets the nomination I will vote for him again and I hope he picks a strong running mate. I also hope we will all back the eventual nominee.