A president doesn't need a great deal of experience. Lincoln took the nation through the Civil War after less than five years on the national stage. Theodore Roosevelt had spent eight years in city politics before he stepped from Assistant Secretary to the Navy to Governor of New York to Vice President in just three years, assuming the Presidency following the assassination of President McKinley. Truman made some of the most difficult decisions in history with little preparation for the presidency--a decade in local politics followed by ten years in the Senate.
However, if a candidate has limited experience, then he ought to have a surplus of character.
If John McCain had just appeared on the national stage, the world would still know the following:
- when captured by the enemy, he refused to take advantage of his father's rank to obtain an early release from a Hanoi hell.
- when his campaign nearly tanked during the summer of 2007, thanks to his position on illegal immigration and his staff's spendthrift ways, he literally carried his own bags on the trail and stubbornly persisted to be the last man standing;
- McCain has repeatedly fought the excesses of the GOP; his maverick status has made him a voice for moderation and a thorn in the side of the disastrous Bush administration.
- in 1998, when her husband's philandering put his presidency and the Democratic party in danger, she swallowed whatever humiliation she felt and campaigned nonstop for Democratic candidates, playing a key role in the party's pickup of five seats in a year that was widely anticipated to be a Republican rout.
- with the bulk of the Democratic elite and most of the media against her, she is relentlessly determined to see her mission through. She may have erred in her campaign, but she understands how to speak to average Americans, and she won't give up on them. (And thus far, over half the Democratic voters have returned the favor, constantly embarrassing the party by refusing to abandon her for Obama).
- in interview after interview, none of his friends and acquaintances from his past can recall a single opinion he ever expressed.
- he won his first political office by using a procedural strategy to knock a political ally and sponsor out of the race.
- Dissatisfied with the size of house he could buy with $1.3 million, he collaborated with Tony Rezko to rig a purchase for a much larger $1.9 million mansion.
- while Obama now claims that Jeremiah Wright was "just" his pastor, the incendiary preacher was actually Obama's "sounding board" and personal spiritual adviser.
- Given his own autobiography and contemporaneous reporting, he is denying reality when he says that he was not aware of Jeremiah Wright's views.
- when he was challenged on Wright's views, he first did his best to excuse the reverend as “old and past it”, equating the pastor's damning of America with his grandmother's occasional use of racial stereotypes.
- Obama has friends and associates who hold America in great disdain.
- his wife continually sneers about the evils of her "downright mean" country, but allows that if we elect her husband, he'll make us "work hard" and become worthy.
- he initiated his 1996 state senate campaign at Weatherman William Ayres's home, unbothered by Ayres' terrorist acts against the country.
- his own beliefs, as opposed to the text he reads off the teleprompter, are of the standard leftist variety, as is amply demonstrated by quotes, questionnaires and his own associations.
Obama's primary career accomplishment has been getting elected. He doesn't do much once he gets the job, however.
- He was elected President of Harvard Law Review--and evidence suggests says he wasn't a particularly effective leader.1
- Upon assuming his position in the Illinois Senate, he then did nothing notable for six years. Illinois Senate Majority leader Emil Jones appropriated legislation from other senators and slapped Obama's name on it to give the neophyte a boost for his US Senate campaign.
- He strolled through that Senate campaign, untroubled by anything so mundane as opposition--and, as he acknowledges, then did nothing except write a book, win a Grammy, and run for President. This hasn't stopped him from horning in on press conferences and taking credit for other Senators' work.
- While he talks a great deal about reaching across the aisles, he has shown little interest in doing so in his day job, whereas both Clinton and McCain are notable in their bipartisan efforts.
At no time has he showed the guts, principles, or values necessary to run this country.
Yet Democratic voters are told that it's time to "unite", that good Democrats will should accept Obama as the nominee.
Seventeen million Democrats voted for Hillary Clinton, and a good number of them are deeply disgusted by Barack Obama. However, many of them will either stay home or reluctantly vote for Obama, like good Democrats.
Don't go along with it. Don't be a good Democrat.
1 Obama led issue 104, cited almost half as often as any other issue in the past 20 years,. The book Poisoned Ivy about that time says "Obama was friendly and outgoing, but the class succeeding him wanted a tougher editor to lead them."
May 20, 08 02:11 PM