As I’ve been reviewing past presidents’ experience prior to becoming president, the topic has come up a few times in the media recently. As we head for a Tuesday penultimate in its Superness, it’s been in some of the political coverage.
The question was raised directly by George Will on This Week: Does that experience count for anything? Of course he had to do it such a was as to attempt to show himself to be the smartest Ass in the room. Who was the most “experienced and prepared” president? James Bucannan, generally judged one of the worst. Because it was such an obviously researched and prepared fact and delivered with much smugness, it failed at making Will seem superior. Not that it’s not an interesting data point.
Also in Slate.com this week, John Dickerson broached the subject in Tough Call, Will Clinton or Obama Protect Your Children.
… the essential question the ad asks is a fair one: Which of the candidates do you trust to keep his or her head when everyone around them is lighting theirs on fire, and at a time when your kid’s safety could be on the line?
The answer touches on the elements of experience as we’ve batted them around so far this election—who has broader exposure to the world, who has dealt with more foreign leaders, and who knows more about the military. But the ad also raises a new question the Clinton campaign has been stressing over the last few days: Who has been tested?
March 4th, 2008
Posted by
bshirley |
government, inthenews, politics, presidents |
2 comments
Heard on NPR this morning.
“Barack Obama woke up this morning in Cleveland, site of last night’s debate, with Hillary Clinton.”
Now, there may have been one fewer comma in that sentence, but that’s not what it sounded like. Maybe you should have reworded that, NPR.
February 28th, 2008
Posted by
bshirley |
inthenews, media, politics |
no comments
My biggest complaint about presumed Republican nominee for President of the United States John McCain is that there is no “r” in Washington!
February 23rd, 2008
Posted by
bshirley |
inthenews, language, politics |
no comments
The Republican Party over on the GOP.com are asking for you to sign a petition (quick follow the link now) to open up Hillary Clinton’s library (by which they mean Bill Clinton’s presidential records).
I’m sure they realize that the Bush Administration, when they came into office in 2000, locked down all the Reagan era documents that were all due to start being released (20 years later) according to law.
Of course, some (lots) of the current administration were working in those times, and letting panty-raiding liberals dig through their dirty laundry would be undesirable politically. So National Security was invoked.
Generally speaking irony is lost on politicians.
January 31st, 2008
Posted by
bshirley |
politics |
no comments
If neither Dennis Kucinich nor Ron Paul is your first choice in this year’s civic decision that you should be making, I suggest that one of them should be.
There is no doubt that democracy has been diminished for their exclusion from multiple debates. The reasoned arguments from the edges are what sometimes steers a ship of state in the right direction.
If you won’t support either of them, you owe your country at least to listen to them. You don’t have to agree with them. Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich are voices we need.
And maybe when you listen, you’ll remember how media is supposed to work. An airing of ideas, not a lashing of tongues. It’s hard not to interpret the exclusion of candidates by large corporate “sponsors” of debates to be anything but silencing of voices of dissent.
This country was built on dissent.
I’ve put Bill Moyer’s Journal in my RSS aggregator, and the audio podcast in my iTunes. If you still prefer the cathode ray, they do allow him on the air waves, but only on a station funded by the public.
There are several other ways to expose yourself to real discourse,… if you choose civic responsibility.
January 30th, 2008
Posted by
bshirley |
corporations, politics, television |
6 comments
Q: What was the first amendment proposed to the United States Constitution?
(more…)
January 28th, 2008
Posted by
bshirley |
government, politics, presidents |
no comments
