First of all, this is my first diary and as such I will gladly accept any (constructive) criticism. (please don't bother with typo and grammatical errors. I'm very mathematically minded and the illogic of English gets the best of me at times. Yodaitis lol)
I have seen and heard comments refering to the experience of Candidate X, being presented as a major issue when considering our next President. I do not believe this is true, and I would like to explain why.
In 2001, when Bush took over the Oval Office, he brought with him a very experienced team. Lets look at this team in terms of executive experience (state and Federal with mentions of other related experience). I am only including the Pres, Vice and the better known Cabinet members, though many of the #2 position have a lot of experience as well (Wolfowitz for example), but I don't want to write an entire book on the subject lol)
George W. Bush: Gov of Texas 1995-2000 (Total: 6 years)
Richard B. Cheney: Various White House staff and deputy positions 1969-1975, Sec. of Def. 1989-1993 (Total 10 years, not counting his 11 years of legislative experience, nor his 6 years of business executive experience as head of Halliburton).
Colin L. Powell: National security advisor 1987-89, Chairman Joint Cheifs of Staff 1989-1993. (total 6 years, not counting his 10 years experience as a general which is a form of executive).
Condoleezza Rice: Ass. to the Director of Joint Chiefs of Staff 1986, member National Security Council 1989-91, (total 3 years, not counting the many years of experience in education and business)
Paul H. O'Neill: No government executive experience, but major private sector experience as head of Alcoa and Rand.
Donald H. Rumsfeld: A few staff and cabinet positions under Nixon 1969-1972, Sec. of Def. 1975-1977, (Total 6 years, not counting his numerous years as envoy and diplomat during the Reagan and Bush, sr. administrations, as well as business and legislative experience).
John D. Ashcroft: Governor of Missouri 1985-1992 (Total 8 years, not counting his experience as a Missouri senator, auditor and Ass AG).
Gale Norton: AG of Colorado 1991-99. (total 8 years)
Ann Veneman: Deputy Sec of DoA 1991-93. (total 3 years, with DoA exp from California as well).
Donald L. Evans: No Gov exp, but many years in the private sector including CEO of Uited Way and Tom Brown, Inc.
Elaine Choa: Deputy Sec of DoT 1989-1990. (total 2 years, but was also head of peace corp for 2 years and 4 years as head of United Way)
Tommy G. Thompson: Governor of Wisconsin 1987-2000. (total 14 years, with busines exec exp as well)
Andrew H. Card: Various staff positions under Reagan 1981-88, Deputy Chief of Staff 1989-1991, Sec of transportation 1992. (total 12 years)
Christine T. Whitman: Gov of New Jersey 1994-2000 (toatl 6 years, though she actaully goes all the way back to the Nixonadministration having worked under Rumsfeld)
So if we add up these numbers we get 88 years of direct state and federal executive experience. This is counting in the most modest of manners. If we add other executive and government experience we could easily double, triple or even quadrupile this number. Again, this does not include the many Deputy Sec. who have had many years of such experience as well.
One could easily argue, that in 2001, we had the most experienced executive branch in U.S. history! Some of these people have been involved with every Republican administration since Nixon.
So if you want an experienced executive branch, you have to look no further than the current (well current when Bush took office) White House. Its the "Dream Team" of executive experience!
So what did all this experience get us? It got us what will most likely be the worst administration in modern history (if not ever). That's what the 'Dream Team' of experience got us.
So when people make a big deal about experience, I personally have a hard time agreeing with their point. I have to look no further than the last 7 years to see what experience can do. The truth of the matter is that, no matter who wins, they will have a team of people surounding them with many years of related experience, though it will be unlikely they will be as experienced as our current administration.