OBAMARAMA

A Guide to Answering the Experience Question

Thanks to the unscrupulousness of many of our media personalities, if you’re looking for a way to knock Sen. Obama’s credentials as a presidential candidate, you have some options. For starters, you can conflate his name with that of prominent terrorists or compare his wardrobe to that worn by leaders of the Axis of Evil. If it turns out that voters operate somewhere above a 4th grade maturity level and that doesn’t work, you can try highlighting his past admissions of having tried drugs in his youth. If such “cracks” and “pot” shots fail to “spark” the negative vibe you’re going for, well, there’s always the old media fallback: cast vague aspersions on Sen. Obama’s “experience.”

Or, as critics regularly posit with little evidence, his lack thereof. As far as they’re concerned, Sen. Obama is the pie-in-the-sky candidate of dreamy liberals with a weak grasp on political reality, an unseasoned-if-charming wunderkind whose charisma and broad appeal belies a dire lack of substance. Living in Washington, DC, this is a dismissive attitude which I have the pleasure of encountering on a regular basis, usually from folks who are so entrenched in inside-the-beltway party logic they wouldn’t know a grassroots movement if it sat on their head.

For those of us who bristle at what we see as the specious suggestion that Sen. Obama lacks the experience to?be president, here are several potential rejoinders that may prove helpful:

(More after the jump.)

1. Of course he hasn’t accomplished much, he was in the minority for two years as a freshman senator and was just learning the ropes.

Boooo! Boo to this answer. It’s not so much a rejoinder as a capitulation, and one coming all too often from Obama supporters. There’s no need to concede this point, especially when Sen. Obama has plenty of accomplishments to which we can point. Please, for the
love of God, let’s erase this response from our lexicon.

2. Abraham Lincoln only had two years in Congress, and look how awesome he was.

True! Not to mention the fact that comparisons to the Great Emancipator never hurt, and ring especially true for Sen. Obama (legal background, hails from Illinois, compelling orator, etc.). Still, this is basically a redirection and does not address people’s concern about Sen. Obama’s experience. And like it or not, in a post-9/11 world, it’s a legitimate concern to have.

3. Experience is not as important as judgment.

This is a solid reply, and one Sen. Obama uses regularly. After all, he points out, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld had the best resumes in Washington, and look where that got us.

This is similar to #2, though, in that it doesn’t address Sen. Obama’s credentials directly. Which is why it’s important to note that…

4. Sen. Obama has as much legislative and political leadership experience as any of the other major Democratic candidates, if not more.

This point should be made more frequently, and with greater confidence. By 2008, Sen. Obama will have served his constituents for 11 years as a legislator — seven in Illinois, and four on the national stage. Before that he was a law professor, a civil rights attorney, and an organizer.

In contrast, by 2008 Sen. Hillary Clinton will have been in the U.S. Senate for eight years, and has done great work in her time there. That’s basically it, though. Her supporters point to her role as First Lady as a form of “executive experience,” but I’ll be surprised if voters consider that a major credential, especially with the albatross of HillaryCare (among other things) hanging around her neck.

As for former Sen. John Edwards, Seth over at Independents for Obama makes a great point in a recent post:

Lest we forget, John Edwards has even less experience than Barack Obama! And yet no one seems to mention that. Edwards was a trial lawyer before serving his 1 term as US Senator. Obama was a state legislator for 8 years. I think that puts him ahead of Edwards on the Experience Scale.

Finally, another valuable comparison is that between Sen. Obama and President Bush, who served six years as governor following multiple unsuccessful business ventures.

5. The depth of Sen. Obama’s experience speaks for itself.

Just in case you ever find yourself confronted by someone who is criticizing Sen. Obama based on his level of experience, you may want to memorize this little ditty: “In his time in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Obama has been the primary sponsor of 152 bills and resolutions, including three non-binding resolutions that have passed the Senate and 14 bills he co-sponsored that have become law. Legislation Sen. Obama has introduced includes the ‘Spent Nuclear Fuel Tracking and Accountability Act,’ which works to deter nuclear proliferation; the ‘Drinking Water Security Act of 2005,’ which reduces pollutants in our water; and the ‘Lane Evans Veterans Health and Benefits Improvement Act of 2006,’ which secures health benefits for our veterans.“

At the end of the day, all the rejoinders listed above (with the exception of #1) will be helpful in responding to attacks on Sen. Obama’s experience. In a time of such uncertainty, it is perfectly understandable that people want an experienced leader. The important thing to remember is that there are many kinds of experience, many fields in which it can be acquired, and that Sen. Obama has made significant and substantive contributions in many of those fields, not the least of these being the United States Senate.

The fact that he is curious, intelligent, engaged, reasonable, honest, and can construct complete sentences is just the icing on the cake.

UPDATE: Thank you to our friends at the RunObama blog for the link — and to those who clicked on it, welcome to OBAMARAMA. Hope you stick around!