On-The-Job Training

First of all, I am a blogging fiend today.

The latest ad from the Republic National Committee...



So, the point that I believe they're trying to make is John McCain is "experienced" and Obama is "inexperienced." OK, a pretty good argument back in mid-August, but one that was and has continued to be debunked by the choice of Sarah Palin as his VP nominee. For anyone who needs any evidence of this, just search my blog archive for anything having to do with Sarah Palin - I think I make a pretty strong argument.

However, if we are to take John McCain's advice and "really pay attention to words", I think the RNC has shot themselves in the foot on this one. Here's the argument they're making - it's very SAT worthy:

• You wouldn't want to a pilot who's never flown a plane
• You wouldn't want a childcare providerb who's never cared for children
• You wouldn't want a surgeon who's never operated
• THERFORE, you don't want a president who's never led anything

---More after the jump---

Now, there are two ways to look at this. The first is to argue that Obama has no leadership experience. Let's give McCain and his cronies the argument that Obama's superior campaign organization doesn't count. I think Obama's being President of the Harvard Law Review and chairman of several different boards during his time in Chicago count towards the fact that people trust Obama in positions of leadership. And let's not forget, much as RNC would like us to, the fact that to be a community organizer is to be a leader of the community.

The second argument is one that Sarah Palin likes to make...a lot. This one says that Obama has no executive experience, unlike, say, a governer. You watch all of these joint McCain-Palin interviews and she cheerily proclaims that, as a governer, she has more executive experience than Obama, having been in responsible for thousands of government employees and billion-dollar budgets. What I never understood is how they were so effortlessly able to gloss over the simple, yet critical fact that McCain has no executive experience either! If "governing" something is the criteria (which is reasonable since being President is essentially being governer of the country), then Palin has all three of the other guys beat out - that includes John McCain.

Bottom line, this election is not about who has the "experience" to lead the country, because both candidates have demonstrated leadership abilities and characteristics while neither of the candidates has any directly relevant experience. That was, and has been, the failure of John McCain's argument, and probably part of the reason he switched from being the "experience" candidate to being the "maverick reformer" candidate. The RNC's advertisement is bunk and really a waste of time and, more important, precious money.