Hillary’s Biggest Problem: Experience, Not Judgement
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Hillary, McCainI’ve made this point before, but Yglesias makes it again…
If you win a primary on an “experience” argument, then you’d damn well better be more experienced than your general election opponent. McCain would make an experience argument against either opponent, so it’s much better to be the opponent with a record of statements aimed at rebutting such arguments (I don’t think the American people judge your qualification based on duration of service in a broken Washington system…) than to be the opponent who’s been making the argument that voters need to stick with the more seasoned Washington hand.
And so this is why Obama’s winning and it’s why he’ll continue to win. He’s simply better positioned for the general election than Hillary because it’s about judgement, not “experience.”
This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Hillary, McCain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 24th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
[...] Justin Gardner responds with yet something else I’ve been arguing throughout this race: And so this is why Obama’s winning and it’s why he’ll continue to win. He’s simply better positioned for the general election than Hillary because it’s about judgement, not “experience.” [...]
February 25th, 2008 at 6:48 am
But good judgement comes from experience. Trying to recast BHO’s “charisma” into “judgement” in the general election is still going to be a stretch of logic. There will be (hopefully) plenty of rational thinkers out there who will ask, “In what important, relevant situations has BHO shown good judgement?” They should be asking the same question about HRC, McCain, or, for that matter, any candidate.
February 25th, 2008 at 7:59 am
You can have all the Experience in the world and still not be Wise, still not have good Judgment. We all know people who are vein, selfish, showy, spend money like drunken sailors and yet they have all the experience in the world. No judgment/ wisdom comes from something else, may be somewhere else. Not everyone has wisdom but those who do, it is a Blessing to behold. We need those with Wisdom to take the reins of America and make her great again, whole again. We need Barack Obama.
February 25th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Wow. Tall order. Hope he does not disappoint you by falling short of those lofty goals.
On another topic - Anyone else notice the similarity of Ron Paul and Barack Obama “true believer” acolytes?
February 25th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
[...] only Hillary Clinton and her campaign is tragically unaware of this fact. As Justin said in a post today: “…this is why Obama’s winning and it’s why he’ll continue to [...]