Comments on: Experience Matters in a President. Just Ask John Adams.

By: Hal

Hal — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:00:29 +0000

I don’t think Obama’s resume is the skinniest. Abraham Lincoln’s was thinner. He did alright. “Experience” is not a winning argument I think.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:25:09 +0000

Great article, point well made. Wesley Clark’s dumb comment about McCain “riding a jet” is hardly descriptive of the actual experience of “piloting a combat mission” from the pitching deck of an aircraft carrier laden with bombs and missiles.
McCain is a Hero, Gen. Clark has sadly become a political hack.

By: Brenda

Brenda — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:33:59 +0000

Obama has the skinniest resume of anyone who has ever run for President. Neither he nor his people have and right to be a critic of McCain.

By: Bobby Mcgill

Bobby Mcgill — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:55:58 +0000

Washington also had the most king-like qualities, which made sense for a good transition for people so recently under royal rule, moving on to democracy. After marrying into Martha’s money, Washington was one of the largest landowners in the fledgling country and his well awe-inspiring leadership at war bestowed upon him that royal aura that would play well with the newly governed.

This whole concept of experience being important for a president seems well ordered on its surface.

Since you went to the ludicrous extent to compare McCain to someone the likes of Washington, why not use the illustration of a surgeon or a mailman operating on you? Or a mechanic or a toddler working on your car?

Experience is actually a small issue for either men, consider their stations in life. The president going into office is the great unknown and the problems that will confront him and how he will respond are just the same. Character and experience, could all be a wash, giving way to the man in the moment.

At this level of the game, both Obama and McCain are well accomplished, intelligent men and equally qualified for office. To look for some magic mark or some tangible quality of either, in the hopes that it will shed light into how they will actually perform once in the office, is fool’s play.

But it makes for good reading… I at least thank you for that.

By: Jerry Green

Jerry Green — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:33:06 +0000

You’re right James Wilson, but Washington was still the right choice. The choice was based on character (lacking in McCain as illustrated by the Keating affair and sliding positions on all the major issues), experience (the Admiral’s son was given a plane and he crashed it), and Adams’ (and a bunch of other people’s, I might add) educated judgment that Washington was the right guy. And I’m not exactly sure what makes McCain a patriot…as he is described vehemently by Lee above. Again, a heroically failing airplane flight? The fact that he was in the Hanoi Hilton? And what would make one a non-patriot? That he wasn’t shot down? That he wasn’t in the Hanoi Hilton? One cannot, with honest evaluation, begin to compare the reasons for nominating Washington with reasons for nominating McCain. And then to attack the heroic Wesley Clark for calling into question McCain’s allegedly heroic experience as not necessarily making him fit for the job of US President…. If you are for McCain, stick with Conservative vs. Liberal, or you’re gonna’ lose.

By: james wilson

james wilson — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:21:30 +0000

John Adams was a great man, not a great President. There were reasons he was to be the only one-termer until his son.
Under Adams, two-thirds of federal expenditures were to pay off Muslim extremist. His successor fixed that pronto.

By: Dave Surls

Dave Surls — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 01:01:55 +0000

“In 1970, Army Capt. Wes Clark was commanding the 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry, of the 1st Infantry Division (”the Big Red One”), when a Viet Cong soldier shot him four times. Though seriously wounded, he ordered his men to fight back, and they won the skirmish. Clark was hospitalized and awarded a Silver Star. Is that enough character for you?”

It’s enough character for me. I just don’t like Clark’s politics.

By: Kimba

Kimba — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:51:44 +0000

Lee, let me set the record straight for you….
In 1970, Army Capt. Wes Clark was commanding the 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry, of the 1st Infantry Division (“the Big Red One”), when a Viet Cong soldier shot him four times. Though seriously wounded, he ordered his men to fight back, and they won the skirmish. Clark was hospitalized and awarded a Silver Star. Is that enough character for you? Clark has been in actual command of troops. McCain flew a plane. No formal command experience, which is our point.

Now let’s look at McCain’s character. He was accused of improperly aiding Charles H. Keating, Jr., chairman of the failed Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of an investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB). His fellow Senators voted to censure him for questionable conduct stemming from his contact with the lead investigator asking him to back off.

It turned out that McCain received $112,000 by 1987 from Keating and Keating’s relatives and employees to McCain’s Senate campaign, more than any of the other Senators. McCain’s wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. The paper also reported that the McCains, sometimes accompanied by their daughter and baby-sitter, had made at least nine trips at Keating’s expense, sometimes aboard the American Continental Corporation (parent of Lincoln) jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating’s opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay. McCain also did not pay Keating for some of the trips until years after they were taken, after he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln. Lincoln Savings and Loan’s collapse is said to have cost taxpayers $3.4 billion.
Need I say more about CHARACTER?
Want to know more about the skeletons in McCain’s closet?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain_lobbyist_controversy

By: Lee

Lee — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:51:39 +0000

It’s outrageous how the liberal democratic bloggers are trying belittle and discredit a patriot like John McCain. The main point regarding John McCain’s military service goes to CHARACTER. Admirable character is when a POW, surviving in miserable conditions, chooses to remain in prison additional years, because an early release wouldn’t be fair to his fellow prisoners. I know that Wesley Clark, Obama, and these criticizing bloggers wouldn’t have the heart to do it … they can’t even recognize the importance of such an honorable commitment… even though their very freedom of speech, to complain on this blog, was won and protected by the same people with the courage to walk the walk … not just talk the talk!

By: keithacita

keithacita — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:23:41 +0000

i’m voting for the junior senator from california barbara boxer for president. she’s got that rare combination of experience and judgment, unlike some other democratic candidates who claim they do.