The insanity of "experience"
In recognition of the message’s success in Iowa, Hillary Clinton adopted a "change" message both before and after the caucus:
I am so proud to have run with such exceptional candidates. I congratulate Senator Obama and Senator Edwards. I thank Senator Dodd and Senator Biden and Governor Richardson and Congressman Kucinich. Together we have presented the case for change and have made it absolutely clear that America needs a new beginning.
Similarly, her campaign has begun to reach out to younger voters in New Hampshire, recognizing their failure to capture that demographic on the 3rd. However, this makeover doesn’t appear to mean that Clinton is anywhere near abandoning the too-often repeated experience meme
The 2008 presidential election concerns myriad issues we've discussed in these pages, some intimately related to the presidential office (Iraq), and some not (haircuts, Illinois real estate and state drivers license programs alike). On each issue we have judged whether a candidate agrees with us, and where the candidates are similar we often take up the matters of honesty, efficacy, and, eventually, "experience."
A history of having done the right thing, having success under duress or of having made the right choices does indeed speak well of us. Fighting and losing on health care on a national scale speaks well of principle if not accomplishment. Winning expanded health care coverage on the state level speaks well of principle and efficacy if not well of scale. The experience we should value lies in accomplishment in the tasks that face our next president, begging the question...
Commander Anderson: Have you ever been in a combat situation?
Stanley Goodspeed: Define combat, sir.
Commander Anderson: Shep...
Lt. Shephard: An incursion underwater to retake an impregnable fortress held by an elite team of US Marines in possession of 81 hostages and fifteen guided rockets armed with VX poison gas.
Stanley Goodspeed: Oh. In that case, no, sir. Excuse me.
The Rock
Our next presidency will face the challenges of a stuttering economy and rising health care costs. It will face an establishment-friendly supreme court and a Republican side of Congress that already is well in-practice in obstruction politics. It will almost inevitably come to office with a substantial U.S. military occupation of a foreign country lacking a truly viable central government. It will inherit a broad swath of unstable political regions (Horn of Africa, Israel/Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan) humanitarian crises (Iraq refugees, Darfur, AIDS) and human rights restrictions on the part of countries we call our allies, all under the umbrella of poisonous foreign relations and diminished ethical credibility (Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, CIA prisons and international transfers, torture). It will take power from a president that took power upon the executive branch he never should have possessed. Not one of our candidates have ever negotiated this political atmosphere. So don’t give me this "ready on day one" line. Don’t tell me you are better prepared than your opponent to take the position, because you are wrong. If you want to talk about experience- talk about what you intend to do and explicitly how you have done it before.
Ted Striker: I flew single engine fighters in the Air Force, but this plane has four engines. It's an entirely different kind of flying altogether.
Rumack, Randy: [together] It's an entirely different kind of flying.
Airplane!
All of our presidential candidates have experience that may feed effectively into the job. One of the best features of the primary field is the diversity of "experience" it offers. Obama’s background as a community organizer and scholar of constitutional law is one of his most appealing attributes, no matter it being non-legislative. Regardless of the detail of her role in her husband’s White House, Clinton’s history there speaks to her deep connections and standing within the party and the American public. However, a biography, as Obama and to a lesser degree, Edwards have so often reminded us, is no substitute for having the right plan and the right ability to approach policy issues in a rational manner.
What is wrong about Clinton’s message remains her expectation that we should simply take her years of public standing as a substitute for that "judgment." When she uses her experience to her own credit, mainly in health care, those are her finest campaign moments. When she uses it to tear down other candidates, it’s worthless.
Ripley: How many drops is this for you, Lieutenant?
Gorman: Thirty eight... simulated.
Vasquez: How many combat drops?
Gorman: Uh, two. Including this one.
Drake: Shit.
Hudson: Oh, man...
Aliens
Insanity lies in doing something entirely different, and yet expecting the same result.