The experience factor

Some philosopher once said that every joke we hear today is merely a variation of the original joke that was told in a cave among prehistoric men. In a world where thousands of people, if not millions, are writing political commentary in books, magazines, newspapers, and on the internet, it's difficult to come up with an original idea. What most of us are doing is picking a side and trying to put our opinions into words in as interesting a way as we can, whether we're agreeing or disagreeing with ideas that other people have expressed many times over.

What brought this to mind is the ongoing debate over Barack Obama's lack of experience. People who don't like his looks or his name say his inexperience disqualifies him as a presidential candidate. The best answer to that is three names: Richard Nixon, Richard Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld. Three guys who had tons of political experience among them. Tons.

Nixon was the worst president in my lifetime until W came along. Cheney and Rumsfeld were the two men who took a presidency that would have simply been a minor disaster and transformed it into an administration so staggeringly disgraceful that it made Nixon's look not half bad in comparison.

The point, and it certainly isn't original, is that it's not your experience that counts, it's how you use the experience you have. Or as Maria Muldaur once sang: It aint the meat, it's the motion.

Walnuts is more experienced than any of the other remaining candidates, but if he turns out to be an evil man with bad intentions, none of his experience will matter. He'll still suck.