About Me

Name: FJR
Loading...

Create Your Own Blog Find Other Townhall Blogs

Comments

Archives

Blog Roll

 

Does Experience Matter?

    With Barack Obama's sporadic moral controversies arisen, his experience, perhaps a more definite issue of his campaign, seems to have taken a back seat. So to bring it back within the critical lens, we must put his goal in perspective.
    Obama is running for the President of the United States of America, the most prestigious, vital, and decisive profession on the face of this planet. Therefore it is obvious that the person holding the position be fluent with and aware of the fluxations of the political world and the atmosphere that surrounds it.(aware of, not conformed to)
    Now, to many, a necessity for experience would seem obvious, a given if you will. The reason that I reiterate its importance is because it seems that this principle does not apply to Barack Obama in the presidential election, or perhaps that it doesn't apply enough. So let's look at the facts.


      Two years in the U.S. Senate. Seven years in the Illinois Senate. One loss in a primary election for the U.S. House of Representatives. One stirring keynote address at a Democratic National Convention. Two best-selling books.That's Barack Obama's political résumé. Is it enough to qualify him to be president? Nope, here's why.
First of all, the fact is that he has been in the US Senate for only 2 years, a number that speaks for itself, and has spent a majority of that time period running for president, away from Washington.
While in Washington, Barack  has sponsored 130 bills since Jan 4, 2005, of which 117 haven't made it out of committee (Average) and 2 were successfully enacted (Average, relative to peers). He has also missed 21% of the votes.(govtrack.us)
Impressive right? not really. But with all criticism aside, we must not look over those two remarkable bills that passed into law. One of which is really impressive. Obama was lead sponsor of a bill to provide relief and promote democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which was signed into law in December 2006. Forget everything else, that's enough right there, put him in the White House.
   

Now here is Obama's argument to this and it is a legitimate one: "I remember what was said years ago by a candidate running for President. He said, 'The same old experience is not relevant. You can have the right kind of experience and the wrong kind of experience.' Well that candidate was Bill Clinton. And I think he was absolutely right," Obama said in a statement released by his campaign. “I may not have the experience Washington likes, but I have the experience America needs—the ability to bring people together, stand up to the special interests, and tell the truth to the American people on the major issues we face, from Iraq to Social Security,” Obama said. This is a very attractive argument, and I believe that it is why his experience has been overlooked. He concedes that he does no have the experience that Washington likes, meaning actual political experience, but he also evinces that he has more of an internal experience, a moral one if you will. The problem here is that those abilities of "standing up the special interests" and "bringing people together" are variable attributes. These moralities or internal fortes are influenced by their surroundings, in this case, by the political atmosphere. Now to demonstrate his true experience, he must lay out to the American people that these personal attributes can withstand in the face of Washington politics. And to be frank, he hasn't done that yet. From what I have seen during this campaign is that Obama is developing as a politician during the actual campaign. His past is arising, he is demonstrating his extreme weaknesses in foreign policies, and in a sense, Barack Obama has become the Democratic front-runner on the campaign. What I mean is that he had not yet developed in the Illinois senate or more importantly the US senate, and that's a problem. To have a potential President gaining his experience on the actual campaign is not healthy for him or for this country.
What it comes down to when simplified numerically is that Barack Obama, as I said, has been in the Senate for only 2 years. It's just not enough; not enough to clearly demonstrate who Barack Obama is a person or as a politician.
   
   

  
PS: What the hell is a community organizer?
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive