The judgement over experience argument is solid, but it's old enough now not to carry the same impact it used to. The 'experience' argument keeps getting refreshed with silly mistakes by Obama's policy wonks and the heavy push from SNL to highlight it. Obama either needs to find additional ways his judgement carries over hers or find ways to attack her experience argument.
We heard Tom Daschle knock on the door of the argument in his Meet the Press showing.
"I worked with her; I know what a good first lady she was," Daschle said. "But it would be hard for me to draw some degree of connection between being a first lady and having the experience to be the commander in chief.
"I don’t think anyone can look at her experience as first lady and say, for some reason, that qualifies her to run for president of the United States."
Obama needs to take it a step further, though. It's clear that when people think about the contest as it being Obama vs. the Clintons, it leaves them with a bad taste. Bill may have support amongst democrats, but there is no doubt that Obama's message of being a new kind of leader resonated well when Bill was being highlighted.
People want a clean break from the political aristrocracy our highest levels of government enjoy.
So let's ask the question straight up. Hillary touts her experience, but likes to ball it all up in a '35 years' phrasing that makes it all appear substantive. The truth is, it was largely spent as the First Lady both of the President and the Governor of Arkansas.
How many 3am phone calls did she field as First Lady? None. Ultimately, isn't what she's saying boiling down to that her husband has answered those calls before? Isn't this experience argument directly tied to Bill?
Remember, Obama actually has more years served as a legislator than Hillary does.
I think every time the experience argument comes up, the Obama camp should simply reply "We understand that Senator Clinton's husband has a lot of experience in the White House, but this race shouldn't be about him. She is running for office of president, not him, and she should run on her own merits."
What are your thoughts?