Are you inexperienced?

Apex hypocrisy: liberals who just last week were fiercely denying that their sensei Barack Obama was too lacking in experience to be president have now switched, without missing a beat, to pounding Sarah Palin for her lack of that self-same experience.  Hey, whatever argument works at the moment, right?  Who gives a damn about honesty or integrity or consistency?  As long as it helps your team, anything at all is justified—isn't that right, liberals?

I'm not sure what bugs me more about this: the soul-searing hypocrisy, or the ludicrous notion that it requires "experience" to be the figurehead at the top of the pyramid of American empire.  Do these people really think Palin lacks the experience to implement the corporate agenda at every turn, to cater obsessively to the interests of the wealthy and privileged, to bellow and posture and order up a fresh helping of bombs for the people of yet another helpless nation, to mouth the platitudes that pacify us with the illusion of substance and the seductive doctrine of American exceptionalism?  Call me crazy, but I think she'd somehow manage it.

I wonder if the liberals who hold this belief have considered that the single most experienced person in America today—and therefore, apparently, the most qualified to lead us—is none other than George W. Bush.  He shares his eight years of presidential experience with their hero Bill Clinton, of course, but Clinton's experience is stale while Bush's is not just fresh but also quite extensive, thanks to his many experience-building forays in murdering foreigners.

Personally I'd be ecstatic to see anyone who lacked this experience become the President of the United States; in fact it's one of my political fantasies.  But as anyone who follows municipal and state politics knows, there's a filtering process that ensures that those who rise in political life are the ones who understand with crystal clarity which constituency it is they actually serve.  And there's not a single person on either major party presidential ticket who doesn't have that qualification.

Comments

[Gnome Chomsky]

Well, when winning elections is the primary, if not only goal, you get stuff like over at Digby's, where they fret over how McCain is going to be seen on teevee looking presidential by "doing something" about the hurricane, and whudawegonna do about strategically positioning Democrats on camera to get some of that P.R. bonanza? Always thinking about how to turn events into a commercial for their product...

And they're still baffled by how the polls could be so tight. The more nimble-minded just denounce the polls as bullshit (unless they were to show a 30-point lead for Obama, of course); while the others wrestle with their congenital inability to call The American People™ the herd of bovine numskulls they prove themselves to be over and over and over again.

[John Caruso]

Yeah, I find myself "over at Digby's" on a semi-regular basis these days, since it's become a highly instructive experience: watching those who style themselves the vanguard of an online progressive revolution as they kowtow, with flawless fealty and enthusiasm, to the Democratic party line. Hey, it turns out the Democrats were progressives all along! Who knew?

[Jonathan Versen]

"...as anyone who follows municipal and state politics knows, there's a filtering process that ensures that those who rise in political life are the ones who understand with crystal clarity which constituency it is they actually serve."

That's a keeper. Actually, Palin's resume is making me feel sufficiently emboldened to run for the Senate. So if you live in Texas and intend to vote in November, please write my name in as your candidate, instead of John Cornyn or whatisname, the democratic challenger. In return I promise that if I win I'll show up for every vote and collect my Senate paycheck for six years, and maybe give an occasional speech.

[cemmcs]

The experience issue is bullshit. Just don't start any wars or commit any crimes and you are one of the best presidents ever. How hard is that?

"The experience issue is bullshit. Just don't start any wars or commit any crimes and you are one of the best presidents ever. How hard is that?"

Wait, are you talking about U.S. Presidents? Near as I can tell, this schizo ass country demands the opposite of what you've prescribed for greatness.