Originally Posted by trish
It’s going to take more than experience to get us out of hole the Bush administration dug us into. We’re bogged down in two wars, a metaphorical war on terrorism (which is really a war against the individual rights of Americans to privacy and due process), we’re trillions of dollars in dept to communist China, the social security surplus (that was built up because millions of baby boomers paid more in than their elders were withdrawing) was gifted to the 1% of the wealthiest Americans in the form of tax cuts. John McCain promises to stay the course on every one of these sour policies. He’s got experience. Lot’s of it. But has he learned from his experience. He hasn’t learned that Iraq doesn’t share a border with Pakistan. He hasn’t learned the distinction between Shiite and Sunni. Hell, he’s got so much experience he’s going senile: he doesn’t even know how many homes he and his wife have.
What I want in a president is not necessarily the person with the most experience. First, I want someone who shares a lot of common ground with my perspective on the issues. Issues first. Second, I want someone who knows how to get things done through negotiation and compromise. We don’t need another railroader like George Bush. As far as experience goes, I want someone with enough of a history in public life that I can judge from that experience where they stand on issues and how they deal with people.
When we examine McCain’s experience we find a wealthy man who divorced his wife while she was suffering from a life threatening illness. After deciding to go into Arizona politics he sought out and married the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the State. They have hundreds of millions of dollars. Even so, McCain (one of the Keating Four) took bribes in the Keating savings and loan scandal.
Obama grew up, the son of a single mother. As a young man he learned the value of education and worked hard. He’s called an elitist because he went to Harvard Law School. Yet what mother or father wouldn’t be proud to have a son or daughter go to Harvard and become the president of the Harvard Law Review? Any Harvard Law graduate, president of the Review can write their ticket. They can get a high paying job in any firm in the country. Obama chose instead to become a community organizer in Chicago. He and his wife have only just recently been able to pay off their student loans. Because of his rise to the limelight, Obama did make a fortune off the book he wrote when he was twenty-three. He doesn’t have hundreds of millions of dollars like McCain, who is superrich, but he his book did make him a millionaire. He is what the wealthiest Americans snidely call merely affluent. As a member of the 101st congress he helped forge legislation on terrorism, election fraud and lobbying. He’s shown himself to be of liberal persuasion with an ability to change minds and create compromise positions. That’s what true bipartisanism is about.
