Wisdom vs. Experience

We have all heard the same refrain – "Obama is OK, but he doesn't have the experience." This is a disingenuous remark designed to subvert your perception of Barack Obama. It is meant to lead you to dismiss this candidate before you have a chance to learn about him. The lack of experience categorization is designed by the opposition to avert your eyes to a less challenging candidate.

Whether it is the Republicans, or the other Democratic front-runners, the goal of this dispersion is to prevent voters from assessing Senator Obama.

What is so great about experience? Two of the most experienced people in the current administration are Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Both served Presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush 42. Experience did not prevent war, it did not prevent terrorist attack, and it did not prevent recession. The experienced ones in Washington seem mired in scandal, excised from government or impotent in the policy arena. Radical partisanship and media manipulation has set the tone in Washington since the Reagan days. Is this the experience we require of Barack Obama before we consider him electable?

What we need is a gentleman of reason; one with the wisdom to accept the advice of knowledgeable advisors, work and bargain with legislators, governors and foreign leaders and be forthright with the American people. A President more like Jefferson or Lincoln and less like W.

Camelot of the Kennedy era did not consist of one man. JFK brought economists, jurists, diplomats and academics to the table. The wisdom of President Kennedy was to amass true experience and act accordingly. Could you imagine his reaction to the current administration and its efforts to quell all dissent? The parallels with fascism are so disturbing and apparently so blinding that Americans would placidly turn their backs on their own best hope – Senator Obama.

His message of hope is simple and intoxicating. There is no presidential candidate in the field today who speaks of the promise of America, the potential of America and his pact for America. Senator Obama speaks directly to us about a progressive agenda in positive tones. It is about what we can do – not about what we can't do. What we should dream about – not about what we should fear.

Wisdom trumps experience. Support Senator Obama for President.

Two quotes related to wisdom that fit this topic:

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.

- George Bernard Shaw

Six essential qualities that are the key to success: Sincerity, personal integrity, humility, courtesy, wisdom, charity.

- William Menninger