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• Thursday, January 24, 2008 12:18 PM

  Re Obama's "Lack of Experience"

  Funny how the Democratic candidate with the most years in elective office-- three more than Hillary, five more than Edwards-- is the one candidate who's "inexperienced."

  Actually, Dennis Kucinich is the Democratic candidate with the most years in elective office. As for Obama, Edwards and Clinton, it's true Obama's held elective office longer than Edwards and Obama, but my State Rep has held elective office than all three of them. And I can't remember a time when someone was elected President based on his State Senate career.

  The former employee of Sidley & Austin (one of the top law firms in the world), and the constitutional law instructor at the University of Chicago Law School somehow "needs a bit more seasoning." The candidate who was editor of the Harvard Law Review, has two bestselling books, and a Grammy for spoken word recording "lacks experience." The candidate who worked for nearly four years as a community organizer with unemployed steel workers and public housing residents, the candidate who lived overseas as a youngster-- right, "inexperienced."

  Obviously he's accomplished, and if these experiences are important to you, fine. But when evaluating who should be President, not everyone will give the same weight to these experiences as you. And if you want to cite Obama's youthful experiences as a reason to vote for him, don't be surprised if other people cite less flattering youthful experiences.

  The guy who won a U.S. Senate seat in Illinois by the largest margin ever

  His leading opponent for the Democratic nomination had to drop out due to claims about wife beating; his initial Republican opponent had to drop out because he wanted to, or actual did, take his his wife to sex clubs (and, even worse, foreign sex clubs. What is he, un-american?); his actual opponent was Alan Keyes.

  and the one who delivered the most famous keynote speech at a Democratic convention since William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech "should come back in a few years."

  Tell me about Bryan administration again?

  Not experienced enough... hmmm.... isn't that what they always say when folks show up for the interview and they find out one of them is a Negro?

  It's effectively what they said -- by that I guess I mean the conventional wisdom -- about Edwards in 2000 when Al Gore was considering him for VP (not that Gore's actual choice was any good).

  —Green Job Read Green Job's other letters
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