Jul 11 2008
Old and Qualified versus Change and Inexperience
Commentary by Tony Sarrecchia
Old. That’s how participants in an AP-Yahoo news poll see John McCain.
When people were asked to describe John McCain in one word, the most common was ‘old’. The second response was ‘military service’ (9%) and the third was ‘record, qualification’ (8%).
Things weren’t quite so rosy for Barack Obama. The first word used to describe him was the non-judgmental ‘change’. His second place response was ‘lack of experience’ (13%). And third? ‘Dishonest’ (9%).
According this article: http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-candidate-images “Obama is seen as warm and empathetic and McCain as stronger and tougher”. We get to choose between the somewhat effeminate, shady but hip uncle, or the no nonsense, grizzled grandfather. Thanks, major parties, that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
The interesting part of this poll however wasn’t mentioned in many of the reports.
In a survey where the majority of the participants were Democrats (48% versus 36% Republicans) one would expect a large, if not overwhelming, number would vote for Obama if the election were held today. The actual numbers tell a different tale. Of those polled, 40% would pick Obama and 39% would vote for McCain (the rest were spread out over ‘Ralph Nader’, ‘Someone Else’ and ‘Don’t Know’.) A one percent lead for a democrat in a poll where voting democrats lead by 20% cannot be encouraging for the Obama camp. For McCain to rank so close behind Obama indicates that there is growing support among centrist (read that as ‘clear thinking’) democrats for the Old Guy.
As much as people are looking for change from the mediocrity currently in the White House, we should keep in mind that Obama has less than 48 months experience as a actual senator. Fewer months if you count the time campaigning for president, and writing books. Obama himself, on this CNN report, said “I am a believer in knowing what you’re doing when you apply for a job. And I think that if I were to seriously consider running on a national ticket I would essentially have to start now, before having served a day in the Senate. Now, there are some people who might be comfortable doing that, but I’m not one of those people.”
Yet, somewhere between 2004 and now, Obama has garnered that experience? As Oscar Wilde said, “Experience is one thing you can’t get for nothing.”
Or, to quote Bud Fox’s father from the 80’s movie Wall Street, ‘Course my son did work three summers as a baggage handler and freight loader. With those qualifications, why should I doubt his ability to run an airline?’
Obama did work as a senator for a couple of months—why should we doubt his ability to run a country.
http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-candidate-images
http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2008/07/ask-people-to-b.html
- It’s been 442 days since my feelings toward my daughter changed…
- Damn it’s not as easy as I thought
- Alaskan Republican John Harris - Sarah Palin Qualified? Well, “She’s old enough…she’s a U.S. citizen.”
- The Changing of the Guard: Understanding people’s reactions to change
- Getting Old Can Be a Pain !!!
2 Responses to “Old and Qualified versus Change and Inexperience”
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We have seen what ‘experience’ gets us - maybe it is time for someone with vision and a handle on reality to take us into the future.
No one is experienced to be president - it’s a job you learn as you go and mistakes will be made but why would we want someone in who has already made countless mistakes such as sending womens rights back into the dark ages or saying he’s for the environment then the very next day vote against a bill that would help preserve the Everglades (yes, that is what McCain did).
Or we could just forget about the ‘big’ parties and start looking at some of the little guys