“How Hard Could It Be?”

That was the campaign motto of Kinky Friedman during his recent independent run for Governor in Texas. It’s a slap in the face for pompous politicians who run for office and then muddle through their terms, dodging disasters, raising taxes, building campaign coffers and then getting re-elected because “we the people” are too stupid to demand more. Really, it is also a testimonial to the wisdom of our founding fathers. They devised a system that is pretty close to idiot-proof. There are so many checks and balances to impetuous government that the structure can survive fairly high levels of incompetence.

Certainly it still holds true in small towns and cities. Kinky was assuring us that it was true for even large states. But, does it still work for the single super-power in the world in these terrorist-filled times? Can it possibly be harder today than it was in 1787? Might the dangers be so great that we need some level of immediate capability when a new chief executive of the nation assumes the reins of power? Is on-the-job-training still a viable alternative?

I hope we don’t have to find out. Yet, the almost immediate anointing and impending canonization of Barack Hussein Obama as the Messiah of American politics is scaring the bejeezus out of me. He’s handsome, in a raw-boned, metro-sexual, ethnically correct sort of way. He’s clearly intelligent as his degrees would attest. He’s articulate and appealing in presentation as demonstrated in his Democratic convention keynote address and his subsequent national public appearances. He’s slick, all right. But, inquiring minds of crusty old-timers like me want to know what he has done. What are his accomplishments?

Here are some bios of the job applicant:

Barack Obama Bio

That’s fairly complimentary at least at first reading. But, then read between the lines. Catch this regarding that best-selling autobiography about all those lessons he learned from dear old absent dad ("Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance"):

“Although Obama’s father only visited him once after he left, the son grew up with stories of his father’s brilliant mind.”

So, dad who took a powder shortly after Barack’s birth and left him all of this fodder for his book really wasn’t involved in the upbringing. The anecdotes are second-hand at best. Or, maybe they really are nocturnal imaginings, the dreams his father MIGHT have given him if he’d been around. OK, stuff like that isn’t disqualifying for the presidency.

Congress.gov Bio Quite Brief

C’mon. You’ve got to be kidding. The official congressional bio source has one scant paragraph describing a life that qualifies him to be president? Where’s his employment history? What did he build, buy, own, design, develop, create? Where’s the payroll and profit statements of his business. OK, he chose to be a lawyer. Where are the cases he tried, the suits he won, the case law he established? OK, he chose to be a politician. Where are the executive positions? Was he mayor of a town and responsible for crime and garbage and potholes? Was he a bureaucrat? That’s not necessarily good, but it might indicate some management capability. Nothing there apparently.

What's In the Wiki?

At least Wikipedia gives some details. Yet, there’s almost a ten year gap between undergraduate college and completion of law school. In that period we find one year of employment. That’s hardly a career. When he hasn’t been in some welfare oriented sinecure, he’s been in school. Honestly, if a 45 year old man came to me and sought employment on this sort of resume, he wouldn’t enter the career ladder at the top rung in any company that I had an obligation toward.

I’ve got no doubt that Senator Obama is sincere. He’s intelligent. He’s certainly ambitious. I might even give him the benefit of the doubt regarding his professed intention to conduct politics in a more issue-oriented and less personally destructive style. But, is there a shred of evidence that he could manage, organize, lead, protect and defend the largest bureaucracy in the world. Does he have a clue about bullets and beans? Does he know which end of the jet the hot air comes out of?

Is America going to get caught up in the hype of a presidential race that is focused on a black face in a two-thousand dollar suit? Maybe we’ll see Paris Hilton on the ticket to round it out, pretty-face and gender-wise.