The Frog Boileth Over
[2008-02-20 07:50]

Apparently, last night Chris Matthews asked some Texas state senator who supports Barack Obama to name some legislation that Obama successfully enacted. The senator could not name any. This morning, Joe Scarborough chatted with Matthews about this moment and about how this could provide fodder for the Republicans and Hillary Clinton to use against Obama.

Scarborough also wondered if the Clinton campaign could do better in arguing Obama's inexperience, and whether or not that would help Clinton in future primaries. Scarborough suggested using a hospital analogy: suppose you need surgery at a hospital and you're given the choice between an old establishment doctor who has years of experience, and an exciting new doctor who is very talented and inspirational but has only been practicing for a year. Which doctor would you choose?

It was also mentioned on Scarborough's morning show that if Obama goes on to win the presidency and turns out to be a poor president, then Hillary Clinton would be positioned very well for a run at the office in 2012. It was suggested (I don't remember by whom) that Clinton would benefit from the "I told you so" angle, as everyone would ask her about her views every time Obama stumbled. This is the greatest fear that I have about Obama becoming president -- more on that later.

But first, I admit that Obama is green, and it would be swell if he had more U.S. senate experience under his belt. But I don't think it's accurate to portray him as a total n00b. According to his Wikipedia entry, Obama has served in the Illinois state senate between 1997 and 2004, and has been a U.S. senator since 2005. That gives him roughly 11 years of political experience, albeit only 3 years of experience on the national level. Still, that's enough overall experience to satisfy me. So, as a total political n00b, here are my responses to the issues brought up by Matthews and Scarborough:

If put to the test, I probably couldn't name any specific legislation that Obama has enacted, either. That doesn't mean that there isn't any. In fact, I'm pretty sure he's co-sponsored a bunch of stuff, I just don't have it committed to memory. That's what Google is for. More importantly, that doesn't mean that Obama is unskilled at politics and/or unqualified to be president. Think of it this way: Do you know someone who is good with computers? Would you trust this person to fix your computer? Can you name any specific project, program, application or software that that person developed? Suppose the person hasn't developed any programs or applications, and hasn't invented any new technology. Would that make him or her any less knowledgeable?

More importantly, this demonstrates the real concerns that voters have with the status quo. As several pundits have noted, people aren't concerned about Obama's inexperience. Instead, people are so fed up with the government -- not just with the events of the past 7 years, but with politics as a whole -- that they're willing to try something new.

This demonstrates the flaw in Scarborough's hospital analogy. His analogy assumes that the experienced doctor is a good doctor. For many of us, though, the problem is that the experienced doctor is lousy. So, the true analogy is this: would you choose a doctor who is lousy but has been practicing medicine for many years, or would you choose a doctor who seems exceptionally talented but who has only practiced for a few years?

One problem with the status quo, I believe, is that it's become this way so slowly (or has been this way for so long) that most of the people involved don't realize the problem. It's one of those boiling frog situations. In my opinion, Hillary Clinton is one of these frogs. When Hillary argues that she has more experience, she's correct: she knows how to "game the system" better than Obama. The problem I have with Hillary is that she appears to be content with the system (and the gaming of it). And that frightens me.

My biggest fear about Obama being president is that the other politicians, in an attempt to protect their own legacies and the system that they know so well, will consciously or subconsciously work to undermine President Obama so that they can say "I told you so". I fear that this will include other Democrats, such as Hillary Clinton.