Election 2008: The Unimportance of Experience

Chief among criticisms of both John Edwards and Barack Obama are that they are too inexperienced to be good presidents - that they're 'not ready for prome time,' as the saying goes.

Let me first of all say that while Obama and Edwards are two of my early favorites for the nod (along with Richardson), there is no guarantee that I'll actually support any of them when caucus time nears.

On that note, here’s a look at the current and possible 2008 candidates and how many years they will have spent in public office as of November 2008:

• Joe Biden: 38 years - 36 years in the Senate, 2 as a County Councilman
• Tommy Thompson: 38 - 4 as Health and Human Services Secretary, 14 as governor, 20 in the state Assembly
• Chris Dodd: 34 - 28 years in the Senate, 6 in the House
• Duncan Hunter: 28 in the House
• John McCain: 26 - 22 in the Senate, 4 in the House
• Al Gore: 24 - 8 years each as VP, Senator, and Congressman
• Bill Richardson: 24 - 6 as governor, 4 in the Clinton administration, 14 in Congress
• Newt Gingrich: 20 in the House
• Ron Paul: 18 in the House
• Mike Gravel: 16 - 12 in the Senate, 4 in the Alaska House
• Sam Brownback: 14 - 12 in the Senate, 2 in the House
• Mike Huckabee: 14 - 3 as Lieutenant Governor, 11 as Governor
• Dennis Kucinich: 14 - 12 in Congress, 2 as mayor of Cleveland
• Tom Tancredo: 14 - 10 in Congress, 4 in the Colorado House
• Barack Obama: 12 - 4 in the US Senate, 8 in the state Senate
• Jim Gilmore: 12 - 4 as Governor, 4 as Attorney General, 4 as Commonwealth's Attorney
• Hillary Clinton: 8 in the Senate
• Rudy Giuliani: 8 as mayor
• Fred Thompson: 8 in the Senate
• John Edwards: 6 in the Senate
• Mitt Romney: 4 as governor

I don't know about you, but somehow I'm more willing to trust Obama with the future of this country than the more-experienced McCain.

Now here are the other 2004 hopefuls (besides Edwards and Kucinich) arranged by the amount of experience they had when they ran:

• Bob Graham: 38 - 18 years in the US Senate; 8 as governor, 8 in the state senate, 4 in the state house
• Dick Gephardt: 33 - 28 in Congress, 5 as St. Louis alderman
• Joe Lieberman: 32 - 16 in the US Senate, 6 as state attorney general, 10 as state senator
• John Kerry: 22 - 20 in the Senate, 2 as Lieutenant Governor
• Howard Dean: 20 - 11.5 years as governor, 4.5 as Lt. Governor, 4 in the state House
• Carol Moseley Braun: 16 - 6 years in the Senate, 8 in the state House, 2 as Ambassador to New Zealand
• Wesley Clark: 0
• Al Sharpton: 0

Take your pick: Clark or Lieberman? I thought so.

Now let’s add a twist. Here are the last 12 Presidents of this great country, and how much time they spent in public office before becoming President:

• Harry Truman: 27 - 10 on the County Court, 10 years as Senator, 3 months as VP
• Lyndon B. Johnson: 26 - 3 years as VP, 12 in the US Senate, 12 in the House
• Gerald Ford: Almost 26 - 25 in the US House, less than a year as VP
• G.H.W. Bush: 17 - 8 as VP, 4 in the US House, 5 in the Nixon and Ford administrations
• Bill Clinton: 14 - 12 as governor, 2 as state Attorney General
• John F. Kennedy: 14 - 8 in the Senate, 6 in the House
• Richard Nixon: 14 - 4 in the House, 2 as Senator, 8 as VP
• FDR: 13 - 4 years as governor, 2 as state senator, 7 as Assistant Navy Secretary
• Jimmy Carter: 8 - 4 years as Governor, 4 as state Senator
• Ronald Reagan: 8 as Governor
• His Idiocy: 6 as Governor
• Dwight Eisenhower: 0

Who do you think was the better president: Eisenhower, or the more experienced Poppy?

I have listed 41 different individuals in three different categories: 2008 candidates and potential candidates; 2004 candidates; and former Presidents. Now let’s arrange all 41 of the above-mentioned figures in order of how many years they spent in public office:

• Biden, T. Thompson, Graham: 38 years each
• Dodd: 34
• Gephardt: 33
• Lieberman: 32
• Hunter: 28
• Truman: 27+
• LBJ: 27
• Kerry, McCain: 26
• Ford: Just under 26
• Gore, Richardson: 24
• Kerry: 22
• Dean, Gingrich: 20
• Paul: 18
• GHW Bush: 17
• Gravel, Moseley Braun: 16
• B. Clinton, Kennedy, Johnson, Brownback, Huckabee, Kucinich, Tancredo: 14 each
• FDR: 13
• Gilmore, Obama: 12
• H. Clinton, Giuliani, F. Thompson, Carter, Reagan: 8 each
• Edwards, DUH-bya: 6 each*
• Romney: 4
• Eisenhower, Sharpton, Clark: Nada

So... Edwards or Newt? Hillary or Duncan Hunter? Clark or Lieberman?

My point? Well, first of all, Obama isn’t as inexperienced as the spin doctors may have you believe. He’s more experienced than the Nobel Laureate in this group!

Second, it’s not how long you’ve been in office that matters, it’s what you’ve done in that time. But more importantly, it’s about what you plan to do once in office. A career politician (read: Biden) does not always cut it like someone who has a record of integrity and hard work combined with a vision of what America could become (i.e. Obama and Edwards).

So is Edwards inexperienced? Compared to Tommy Thompson, sure. But he is still more seasoned politically than either Eisenhower or Clark, two fine people whom I admire well.

I'm not trying to say inexperienced politicians make better Presidents. Gore and Richardson would do a hell of a lot better job than Fred Thompson. And don't get me started about the guy in the White House right now.

But if experience is as important as some would have you believe, then why is it that such figures as Eisenhower, Edwards, and Hillary are more admired than Dodd, Lieberman, or Gephardt?

So maybe we should avoid focusing on someone’s experience (or lack thereof) and look at the big picture. We need leadership in the White House - leadership that may or may not come from a career poilitician.