A Slight of Hand on Experience

While countless hours of speeches and coverage have focused on which candidate will bring “change” to Washington, the democratic ticket has pulled a slight of hand with another Decision 2008 catch-phrase. Experience, once the cornerstone of the McCain ticket, has suddenly been turned against them by a bizarre old parlor trick. Senator Obama has come to terms with the fact that he is not as experienced as Senator McCain, so instead of arguing from that obvious position of weakness, Senator Obama has misdirected the argument altogether. Now, he tells us, it doesn’t matter that Senator McCain is more experienced than Obama, what matters is that Obama is as experienced as Sarah Palin.

Apparently Senator Obama has forgotten that he is running for president, and that Governor Palin has no such aspirations in this election. The issue never was whether the presidential candidate has as much experience as the opposing vice presidential candidate. Even assuming Senator Obama does equal Governor Palin in experience, which he likely does not, it is a non-issue in this election. It is the President who commands the Armed forces and who negotiates treaties and meets with world leaders. Clearly Senator McCain is more experienced to handle such matters, and the fact that Obama has changed the issue is an admission of that. If he can divert the voter’s attention long enough, he hopes, voters will forget that Sarah Palin will have at least a full term as vice president before ever entering her name on a ballot for president.

The slight of hand has worked. Recently Matt Damon talked about his apocalyptic fears that Sarah Palin may become president with so little experience. Stick to the movie scripts, Matt, because if you look closely you will see that Governor Palin is not running for president. And even if Senator McCain has to resign from office for health reasons Palin would have years of experience as Vice President under her belt. Jumping in on the irrelevant argument, even a CNN newscaster expressed her fear in the outcome of a national emergency if the inexperienced Sarah Palin was our Vice President. Apparently, this newscaster forgot that the president defines our country’s response to such emergencies. The issue has nothing to do with Sarah Palin- what matters is how much better Senator McCain, the presidential nominee, could handle such a situation.

It is a common trick. When you are losing an argument try and make the other side forget what the argument is about. Obama has seen the polls and has seen that he is losing the argument on experience. This election is Obama vs. McCain, and clearly Senator McCain is the more experienced and prepared politician.