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Presidential princes WHAT EXPERIENCE DOES THIS UPSTART FROM ILLINOIS HAVE? WILL HE BE READY FROM 'DAY ONE'?
Upstart from Illinois lacks experience
Date published: 2/17/2008
CHARLOTTESVILLE-- I picture a supporter of William Seward, the senator from New York and odds-on favorite to the win the 1860 Republican presidential nomination, sputtering in exasperation at the upstart from Illinois who suddenly appeared to be taking the nomination away from his candidate. "Who is this guy?" "What has he done?" "He is a talker, not a doer."Seward would be ready to be president from Day One, this supporter might say, implying that the Illinois fellow would not be ready on Day One. "What experience does he have?" the Seward supporter might have asked. How paltry, compared to Seward, were the qualifications of his Illinois opponent: Seward had more than 35 years of experience--as lawyer for fugitive slaves, governor of New York, senator from New York, leader first of the Whigs and then of the Republicans nationally. This novice who challenged him had never held any high office, nor done any great deed, headed any department or passed any national legislation. He had never been in command of anything except a straggling company of volunteers in the state militia when he was 23--a group who, it was reported, when he issued his first command told him to go to hell. He had served six years in the Illinois state legislature. His only service in national government had been one short and unimpressive term as a congressman 11 years earlier. He had not been the "executive" of anything more than a two-man law firm; he had never in his life fired anyone. He had emerged on the national scene just by making speeches. The New York senator's supporter might grant, with a touch of condescension, that the Illinois threat delivered a good speech. But although that address at Cooper Union might be "beautifully expressed and passionately felt," it was not action. "Words are not actions. What we have to do is to translate talk into reality."
Date published: 2/17/2008
Doesn't add up.
(posted by
namedujour
, Feb. 25, 2008 8:25 am)
The logic doesn't immediately follow that if Abe Lincoln had no experience, anyone else with no experience is Abe Lincoln. That's what this article is trying to sell. (I don't have experience. Am I Abe Lincoln too?) I love Obama, but Obama maniacs sound like religious converts and don't answer my questions satisfactorily. I sincerely don't know what he's done or what he's going to do. And I have some serious nostalgia for the 90s when Clinton took the Republican deficit and turned it around. Ah! The 90s!
Funny
(posted by
alabamian
, Feb. 17, 2008 10:19 am)
how history repeats itself. Loved the article. It is about time we had some good history repeated. I think we have had enough of both Bushes and both Clintons. The people that think when they elect Hilary they will also get Bill deserve Bill.
Great Article
(posted by
thelama
, Feb. 17, 2008 8:34 am)
Thank you for the great article. Look at ALL the so-called experience of this administration - and the failures that have ensued. Look at perhaps the most "experienced" presidents in the last 30-40 years - Johnson and Nixon. Both failures because of their policies and unstable personalities. Sometimes history calls for a transformative leader. This is one of those times, and I think Obama can lead us with new energy to a new kind of politics that breaks through all this old, partisan sniping.
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