Executive Experience

Political campaigns have become marketing events and both parties are doing their best to point out the shortcomings of their opponents. Obama got on the "change" theme and now McCain has picked up the mantel. Of course then we went to the lack of experience of Obama. The VP nominee for the Republicans has been doing a great job of mocking him for his lightweight resume'. Predictably the DEMs countered calling her white trash from Podunk, Alaska, saying her highly touted executive experience doesn't mean anything. Blah, Blah, Blah!

Let's face it. We will never know how a person is going to perform as President until they get the job. Also, the relative effectiveness of a President is largely determined by the strength of support in the Congress. Back in the 60's when all of the major social legislation got passed it was a stacked deck with the Republicans there for comic relief. We can argue about the merits of the legislation but it's a moot point. It became law because the majority was on board for it. Then again Jimmy Carter had a similar advantage and accomplished little more than driving our economy into the ditch. So really we search for clues as to how they will behave, how well they play with others, and whether they can sell ice to Eskimos. We cross our fingers and hope for the best. Because when it comes to the election everyone is going to the voting booth and vote their own opinion, most of which are based on ignorance. There will be a significant percent of the population that will vote for John McCain because he is white. Likewise there will be a large group that will vote for Obama because he is black. Aren't both of them racists? The significance of this is that the former group is greatly under reported in polls and the latter is over reported. Both are wrong but I believe it will be the deciding factor in the election. All of the other crap is just positioning and isn't going to sway very many.