I read a version of Brooks’ column this morning in the Columbus Dispatch. Garbled wouldn’t describe it. If the presidency of G.W. Bush proved anything, it wouldn’t be that inexperience is risky, because G.W. Bush did not go into the White House from a log house.
The column’s focus on Palin was really inexcusable, since any argument against inexperience would also apply to Obama, and more urgently, since he and not Palin is actually running for president. I had to think Brooks’ column was a set-up for another column about Obama. But maybe I’m giving Brooks too much credit.
The “experience” issue is actually a red herring. What Palin has that Obama doesn’t is *maturity*. Experience can develop maturity but it isn’t essential, and sometimes–as in the case of Joe Biden–immaturity runs so deep that aging and experience have little effect on it.