Argument: Obama lacks the experience necessary to be an effective president

Support

• “Obama Lacks Experience for Highest Office, Poll Finds.” American Power. March 4, 2008

• “Bill Clinton Questions Obama’s Experience”. New York Times. September 28, 2007 – “Former President Bill Clinton showed his singular ability to diminish his wife’s presidential rivals when, in a television interview, he said that Senator Barack Obama had about as much experience as Mr. Clinton did in 1988 — the year Mr. Clinton decided not to run for the presidency.

‘I was, in terms of experience, was closer to Senator Obama, I suppose, in 1988 when I came within a day of announcing,’ Mr. Clinton said in a interview on ‘Political Capital with Al Hunt’ that was scheduled to be broadcast tonight on Bloomberg television and again this weekend.

Mr. Clinton did not run that year, he added, because ‘I really didn’t think I knew enough, and had served enough and done enough to run.’

The former president quickly noted that he did not mean Mr. Obama should not be pursuing the nomination. But he said that compared to Mr. Obama, who went from the Illinois Legislature to the United States Senate in 2005, Mr. Clinton had far more experience when he finally did run in 1992, as governor of Arkansas for nearly 12 years and as a leader of national policy initiatives.”

“McCain for president: A certain leader for uncertain times”. Boston Herald. 1 Oct. 2008 – Being commander in chief isn’t the place for on-the-job training; it’s a job for someone who has already proven his leadership skills – in battle, as a prisoner of war and during more than two decades on the floor of the Senate.

John McCain’s heroic resume isn’t just about his sacrifice and his experience; it’s about what he learned from those experiences. And on that issue his own words from “Faith of My Fathers” are telling: