The McCain Myth of Experience
John McCain is running for President on his one great asset, his experience and strength in military and foreign affairs. My question is, what experience, what strength? This is a man who graduated third from the bottom of his class of almost 900 students, crashed 5 planes, flew only 21 hours before he was captured and that is it. He has no military command experience, never lead any troops, and cannot even get the factions in Iraq straight when he has been corrected over and over. The only experience this man has is D.C., and that is exactly what we do not want. I want intelligence, fresh ideas, and promises kept. Senator McCain cannot even operate a computer by his own admission, but we are to trust him running our country in a global economy? The McCain who ran in 2000 is not the McCain running now. He has lost his edge, he seems at times to run off the track and he certainly is not grasping basic facts about the war. He is NOT experienced, he is just another rerun. I want a new show.
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We won't be able to break the perception of experience on McCain. Need another route.
June 14, 2008 6:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
How defeatist is this?
Wes Clark showed yesterday on MSNBC just how it's done. If you missed that, check it out:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/25139036#25139036
Look, one thing the Clintons understood better than anyone is if you repeat the same thing long enough and loud enough, it'll gain traction. And that applied to total bullshit!
This one is actually true. The lesson is for all Democratic surrogates and Obama to keep repeating it everywhere: this man is a militarist, not an international relations student. The gaps in his understanding are horrendous.
Are you seriously advocating that that should simply be ignored and everyone should be complicit in enabling his fantasy?
June 14, 2008 8:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fran, right on the mark. Repeat and repeat. I think it will start to take hold, hence my post. Wes Clark made a very eloquent and compelling case, and he is absolutely correct.
June 14, 2008 10:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
If I recall, similar arguments were made about Senator Clinton's experience. Yet in the vast majority of voters minds, it seems the perception of Clinton's experience was never quite broken.
"This is a man who graduated third from the bottom of his class of almost 900 students, crashed 5 planes, flew only 21 hours before he was captured and that is it."
Not a line of attack I would recommend. People will naturally react negatively to it. However, the argument that experience does not necessarily lend itself to good judgment worked well for Senator Obama in the primary, and is one I'd imagine he will use to success again in the general.
I am in complete agreement that military experience does not translate to worldly or foreign policy expertise. Do you think that the majority of voters think that as well?
June 15, 2008 9:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm afraid you are probably right. I believe it was pointed out in 2000 that Bush was a c student, a failure in every business endeavor he ever tried, an awol National Guardsman, a drug user, an alcoholic, and had never traveled outside the U. S. (correct me if I'm wrong on that last one.) And why would voters ever elect someone like that to the highest office in the most powerful country on earth? I haven't figured it out yet.
June 15, 2008 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's a right kind of change and a wrong kind of change - McCain's words.
Well, there's also a right kind of experience and a wrong kind of experience. McCain has all the wrong kind. He has no moral compass. He has reversed himself again and again until, in the end, he stands for nothing but self-contradiction and denial of self-contradiction and contradiction of denial.
No, McCain's experience is that he used to be, or seem to be at least, a maverick, then he became a lap dog. And, if once he might have been fit to lead, he is no longer.
Experience can teach you the wrong lessons as well as the right ones. Somewhere along the way, McCain lost his bearings, if he ever had any, and it's clear that he would steer us on the wrong course because his so-called experience is the "wrong kind."
June 15, 2008 1:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
I said this the other day, but it might bear repeating here. Regarding the experience issue:
Hillary was really fond of the job interview metaphor. Personally, I like the "I'm having surgery and who do I want to operate on me?" metaphor.
And that would be the young guy with access to all the latest techniques, research, ideas, energy, innovation and vision. Oh, and yeah, he can work a computer, dance and play hoops too! My man, Obama!
June 15, 2008 1:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
bronx you nailed it...in fact that would have been a perfect response to hrc also...hehehe
June 15, 2008 3:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
With age does not come wisdom but knowledge through doing.
McCain hasn't done anything but chase women, and now Bush.
June 15, 2008 5:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Its funny that McCain is using ALL the same failed arguments that HRC used against Obama. He also has all the same negatives as HRC. He embraces the failed strategies of both Bush and HRC. Judgement indeed!
June 15, 2008 7:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't the experience thing more about character than about whether he can use a computer. McCain's character has been tested in ways Barack's hasn't been. And most people's hasn't been. I think that's what all the commander in chief threshold talk was about.
June 15, 2008 8:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
No it is not. Senator Clinton was the one who used that attack line, to try and overtake Senator Obama.
It was an arbitrary claim that Senator Clinton pushed, to try and make Senator Obama look unqualified. The truth was that she had no such experience herself, but was just trying to bullshit the voters.
Bush One had one of the greatest political resumes in American history, and he fell flat on his face, and Lincoln's resume was very slight, but he had the right stuff.
Often times the rookie of the year turns out to be far superior to the guy who used to be a great player, once upon a time, long long ago.
June 15, 2008 3:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
To your point, everyone takes McCain's experience for granted because he has been a Senator for so long. If it is taken for granted, why bother to ask him about it?
Some reporter needs to ask him the simple question: Could you please desribe your policy experience in foreign policy and military affairs?
I believe that he can't be asked enough times to explain how his experience led to his war vote.
June 15, 2008 9:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
By the way, Amelie, I think you're avatar is great. One of the best around.
June 15, 2008 11:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks!
June 15, 2008 10:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
MiddleChild, I agree. McCain has no business running anything whatsoever.
He will make a total fool of himself in all situations other than scripted PR setups. It is inconceivable that he could be elected.
On the other hand , it was inconceivable that Bush could get re-elected in 2004. Never underestimate the ignorance of the American people.
June 15, 2008 3:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
There is an old saying that some folks have thirty years of experience and that some folks have one year of experience, thirty times.
McCain seems to have learned nothing whatsoever from all his years and misadventures. McCain has one year of experience, forty times times. He is, indeed, just another rerun that we have seen too many times before.
June 15, 2008 4:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unless experience as a reprobate counts!
October 15, 2008 1:23 PM | Reply | Permalink