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Are You Experienced?: Why a U.S. senator might not trump a state legislator
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| Parent(s) |
Race
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| Contributor | Craverguy |
| Last Edited | Craverguy Jun 24, 2008 03:36pm |
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| Category | Commentary |
| Media | Magazine - Newsweek |
| News Date | Monday, June 23, 2008 09:35:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | We are in the opening days of a presidential campaign that pits youth against age, the virtues of experience against the freshness and riskiness of the new arrival.
I'm not here to refute all of that: John McCain is 25 years older than Barack Obama, and he always will be. But here's something I bet you didn't know: If Obama becomes president, he will have spent more time serving as a state legislator (eight years) than anyone who has occupied the White House since Abraham Lincoln.
You're thinking that's kind of irrelevant. John McCain has been a member of the U.S. Senate since 1986; do I really mean to suggest that Obama's eight years in the Illinois Senate (not the most august deliberative body, as anyone who has seen it will attest) provide the same preparation for the presidency? Well, not exactly. But looking back on quite a few years covering Congress, and an almost equal number of years following legislatures, I'm drawn to some slightly curmudgeonly comments about what it is that U.S. senators do, and what it is that state legislators do. |
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