Comments on: Bill Kristol Lowers His Standard on “Experience”

By: JSpencer

JSpencer — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:01:24 +0000

jdledell, thanks for jumping in with the reality check. Tit for tat sniping and attention seeking behavior accomplishes nothing, but an honest look at what these candidates have to offer does. It seems as though intellectual curiousity, passion, and ability have been anathema to the right for some time now, so it should be no surprise to see someone like Obama generating so much interest. As for Bill Kristol, his main shtick seems to propping up phony arguments for the right – even if it means having to ignore his own hypocrisy. Apparently that's not a problem for some folks.

By: StockBoySF

StockBoySF — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:48:38 +0000

I've never been a fan of Bill Kristol… all he does is cherry-pick certain pieces of an argument to make his case.

Of course Kristol has now lowered his standards on “experience” when it comes to the executive branch. I don't expect very much from him and he continues to deliver very little.

By: jdledell

jdledell — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:10:06 +0000

I was a Senior Executive of an International financial firm running operations with 18,000 employees and annual revenue in excess of $25 billion. I can testify that “Executive experience” is no big deal. It's the intellectual and personality characteristics that really are important. Judgement, intellectual curiosity, an inate ability to make cost benefit evauations, the ability to judge people and to motivate them that make a good executive.

By these counts Barak's building an efficient 50 state campaign organization and wisely spending the $367 million he has so far collected is a good measure of talent. More importantly, Barak has spent years studing important issues like Constitutional Law, political economics, community organizations, foreign affairs and meeting and learning from some of the foremost learned people in America.

Without being condescending, Sarah Palin did go to college but as far as I can tell was somewhat undistinquished academically – certainly not ready for Harvard Law School. She seems like a wonderful mom and wife ( I am NOT denigrating those qualities) but her interests seem rather localized – hunting and fishing, snowmobiling, schools and local politics. Has she ever shown much interest in life beyong Alaska?

By: ChrisWWW

ChrisWWW — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:10:01 +0000

jwest,
Thanks for the laugh.

By: jwest

jwest — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:44:33 +0000

Since we’ve beaten the experience thing to death in past few threads, let’s talk about Elrod’s point of judgment.

I keep hearing about Obama’s judgment concerning his opposition on going to war with Iraq in 2002. Is this what you want in a President?

When every intelligence agency in the world, the previous administration and even some of Saddam’s own generals were saying he had WMD, is it good judgment to ignore the evidence?

By: elrod

elrod — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:34:55 +0000

Again, executive experience in Juneau for 18 months (and Wasilla before that) does not in any way transfer to qualification for the White House. It doesn't disqualify John McCain for having no governing experience and it doesn't disqualify Obama or Biden. To jump from lower-level experience to a higher level you need to make the case for how you would apply your experiences and lessons, and vision that guides those lessons. With Palin we see nothing of the sort. Her reform cred is mostly bogus, her honesty is in serious doubt, and her temperament matches McCain...in a bad way.

Finally, it's not that Palin is too inexperienced to lead. It's that McCain has been saying for months that Obama is too inexperienced. Is that talking point now defunct:? Is this now John McCain v. 6.0?

Judgment and temperament. One team has it. And it's not the GOP.

By: drquality.com » Blog Archive » Bill Kristol Lowers His Standard on “Experience”

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:25:40 +0000

[...] Original post by The Moderate Voice – Domestic and international news analysis, irreverent comments, original reporti… [...]

By: bacalove

bacalove — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:19:07 +0000

Scarborough reacts to Palin!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTbsbeY5k5k

A great video in which the Pundits are being truthful before her actual nomination!

Let's see how they spin it this week.

By: BBQ

BBQ — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:09:34 +0000

And your an ideologue.

By: ChrisWWW

ChrisWWW — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:57:55 +0000

As has been pointed out in the other threads

You pointed it out in other threads, and your arguments were roundly refuted by logic and evidence.

Republicans see the fact that she’s a woman as a plus. It’s too bad the democrats seem to think its reason for disqualification.

Now you're just being an a**hole.

By: jwest

jwest — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:49:59 +0000

It’s amazing that our left-of-center friends have stumbled on to the word “experience”.

When it was Barak versus Hillary, there didn’t seem to be much need for a resume, only “change” mattered.

As has been pointed out in the other threads, Barak and Biden lack any executive experience at all. Palin has been an effective governor and reformer.

Republicans see the fact that she’s a woman as a plus. It’s too bad the democrats seem to think its reason for disqualification.