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September 01, 2008

Debunking McCain's "Experience" Canard

Debunking the Presidential "Experience" Canard by examining the commonalities between Barack Obama and one of our greatest Presidents ever - Abraham Lincoln.

• Both came from obscurity and very humble socio-economic backgrounds.

• Both physically thin and very tall.

• Both met and married their respective Illinoian wives, in Illinois.

• Both vocally opposed existing Wars and alleged deliberate deception by the Presidents who started them. Lincoln, the Mexican War. Obama, the Iraq War. And both did so at a time when public sentiments were strongly in favor of the respective Wars.

• Both advocated paradigm shifts in race relations.

• Both practiced law in Illinois.

• Both demonstrated knowledge of and competence in Constitutional law. Lincoln by being admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court. Obama by teaching Contitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for 12 years.

• Both served multiple terms in the Illinois state legislature.

• Both served a single term in the U.S. Congress before running for President. Lincoln in the House and Obama in the Senate.

• Both nominated to run for U.S. President with nearly identical elective resumes consisting of multiple terms in the Illinois state lege and a single term in Congress.

• Both younger than the average age of the elected first-term Presidents who preceeded them. Lincoln by 5 years, Obama by 8 years. Although both were preceeded by several Presidents who had been even younger when inaugurated.

• Both faced significantly older General Election opponents. McCain is at 72 years old the oldest non-incumbent Presidential candidate in our nation's history. Well, unless you want to include perennial spoiler wannabe Ralph Nader who is 74.

• Both significantly younger at nomination than the sitting President. Lincoln by 18 years, Obama by 14 years.
  

Abraham Lincoln went on to unparalleled greatness, literally preserving and reshaping our nation's premise and promise of freedom and justice for all so the immortal words of Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence no longer rang hollow in proclaiming that "all men are created equal. "

Time will tell what a President Barack Obama will bring us. But it is clear that the naysayers in the Republican Party are playing Americans for idiots by challenging Obama's "experience" to lead when Lincoln led magnificantly with nearly identical "experience" and a vastly inferior education.

Posted by Kevin at September 1, 2008 02:56 PM