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• Sunday, January 6, 2008 11:05 AM

  The experience fallacy

  I think that Obama's 'lack of experience' in a non issue. For the record, he has had only four years in the senate, that is true, but he served for seven years in the Illinois Senate. And sure, that's not a national office, but its not like he was just hanging out at home watching soaps before 2004.

  But take a quick look at previous Presidents and what experience they had going into their terms.

  Ronald Reagan- Served two terms as Governor of California. Gives him a decent claim to experience credentials, but not in respect to foreign policy, where he arguably shined the best.

  Dwight Eisenhower- While Ike obviously had a good deal of command experience during the WWII and after, before becoming President he had not had a single days' worth of experience in elected office of any kind.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt- Before his four terms as President, the only experience FDR had in elected office was four years as New York Governor, and two as a state Senator in New York.

  Woodrow Wilson- Before his Presidency, Wilson served a whopping two years as Governor of New Jersey. Not even a full term.

  Teddy Roosevelt- After charging up San Jaun Hill, TR served one year as Governor of New York and then roughly six months as Vice President. So in total, he had eighteen months in elected office before becoming President.

  Abraham Lincoln- Two very insignificant years in the US House of Representatives. Before that, eight years as an Illinois State Rep. That's it.

  We'll stop at Lincoln. Before him Presidents had even less experience before assuming office, but then again people didn't live as long back then so you couldn't wait around too long, and the Presidency really wasn't the same kind of job before Lincoln as it was after.

  Even without going back past Lincoln, here is a list of six Presidents, all of whom it can be argued were weak on experience; some which you can say had practically no experience at all. And at least five of these men, maybe all six, are widely seen as among the ten best Presidents we've ever had.

  So really, I ask you, is experience really all that important?

  —Number Six Read Number Six's other letters
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