Experience Counts

I ran for the state legislature in Colorado using that subject as my campaign slogan, "Experience Counts". My opponent was a college dropout, a telemarketer (when he had a job) and a political conniver of the highest order. He beat me like the proverbial drum.

In short order, in the Colorado House of Representatives, he rose to leadership. First majority whip and then after six years, Speaker of the House. He looked to be a shoo-in for the next opening of a US Representative seat, until he was arrested one night after a phone call to 911 from a registered lobbyist that he had attempted to break into her house and now was chasing her down the street with a screw-driver.

As the story was revealed, it turned out that he had quite literally gotten in bed with a lobbyist. He was shacking up with her, despite his fine Christian posturing, a supportive wife and three beautiful children. The lobbyist and the legislator had a falling out so she ousted him from her bed and apartment. His story was that he was breaking in to recover his cell phone charger! He should have gone to Radio Shack for a new one.

But, the point of my campaign had been that he had little experience in business, the military, or management at any level. Yet, the voters seemed not to find experience very important. They summarily rejected me and chose him by a landslide. In retrospect, they did me a favor.

Now, we've elevated that sort of decision-making process to the highest national level. We don't seemingly care about whether a Presidential contender has ever met a payroll, directed a staff, or completed a project on time and under budget. We just ask for hope and change without qualifications.

Which leads us to the economy and increasingly to the more sensitive issue of foreign policy, because that will cost us very much more in the long run. Malone Vandam at New Paltz indicts the Messiah today with this summary:

Foreign Policy Blunders Join Economic Malfeasance

How even the most inept administration could so blunder something as common, scripted and almost routine as a visit from a sitting British PM is almost beyond comprehension .