- Joined
- Sep 3, 2011
- Messages
- 34,817
- Reaction score
- 18,576
- Location
- Look to your right... I'm that guy.
- Gender
- Undisclosed
- Political Leaning
- Centrist
How important is experience when choosing a President?
How much importance do YOU put on experience when you cast your vote?
For years I have railed against experienced "Beltway Politicians"... the ones we always complain about... for doing the same stuff to us that they've always done. The idea of someone not beholden to party interests was/is hugely attractive. I wanted somebody to be pretty much independent... an "outsider". I mean, if prison is a school for criminals, isn't Congress the same thing?
Yet the last couple times we have tried that... Carter and Obama... it's been a huge unmitigated failure.
Carter was a competent Governor, but knew almost no one in Washington and didn't even try to fit in. He was resented because of that, and nobody would work with him. He was an outsider and had no clue how to work that.
Obama's biggest shortcoming has turned out to be his inexperience and lack of established working relationships. If he had served at least a couple full terms in Congress, and established some friendships, or at least working relationships, I think his Presidency would have been far different. Capable, at least. His cooperation issues are not wholly the Rep's fault.
Hence I have been rethinking this. I still don't want somebody so entrenched that I can never trust them, yet I now realize they need to know something about how to work the system, and you can only gain that from the system, so I've come to realize that I don't want somebody so out-of-touch and so inexperienced that they're weak and ineffective, either. Where's the happy-medium?
How much importance do YOU put on experience when you cast your vote?
For years I have railed against experienced "Beltway Politicians"... the ones we always complain about... for doing the same stuff to us that they've always done. The idea of someone not beholden to party interests was/is hugely attractive. I wanted somebody to be pretty much independent... an "outsider". I mean, if prison is a school for criminals, isn't Congress the same thing?
Yet the last couple times we have tried that... Carter and Obama... it's been a huge unmitigated failure.
Carter was a competent Governor, but knew almost no one in Washington and didn't even try to fit in. He was resented because of that, and nobody would work with him. He was an outsider and had no clue how to work that.
Obama's biggest shortcoming has turned out to be his inexperience and lack of established working relationships. If he had served at least a couple full terms in Congress, and established some friendships, or at least working relationships, I think his Presidency would have been far different. Capable, at least. His cooperation issues are not wholly the Rep's fault.
Hence I have been rethinking this. I still don't want somebody so entrenched that I can never trust them, yet I now realize they need to know something about how to work the system, and you can only gain that from the system, so I've come to realize that I don't want somebody so out-of-touch and so inexperienced that they're weak and ineffective, either. Where's the happy-medium?