Obama's experience

UPDATED: I added a link to a comparison of Obama and Hillary's Senate records below; it's marked with "*** new ***".

I read in the newspaper this morning (2/2/08) that a poll was conducted about all of the Presidential candidates; it sought to identify the words or phrases that most come to mind for people.

The top traits for Hillary: that she's a woman (13%), dishonest (10%), and not likable (8%).

For Obama: lack of experience (10%), inspiring (8%), and change (8%).

It seems to me that Obama's biggest hurdle is due to his more recent arrival on the national stage: people don't yet know him that well. But as has been seen in the early states, the more they get to know him, the more they like him, and he's erased large initial leads that Hillary enjoyed.

Hillary's problem, though, is that people have largely formed an opinion about her and it's quite negative (most polls say around 47% of those surveyed assess her that way).

So I'll do the little that I can to share some links that weigh in on Obama's experience:

• First, keep in mind that Obama is older than either Bill Clinton or JFK was when they became President. Clinton was a governor from Arkansas... with very little foreign relations experience. Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor from '93 to '97 in the Clinton Administration, compares Obama's legislative and international experience with Bill's (skip to part 2 of the post, part 1 addresses another issue)
• *** new *** Here's a great comparison of the bills that Obama and Hillary have introduced in the Senate.
• The Washington Post on his legislative record: one and two, with this quote from the second:

  From a district on the South Side of Chicago, he reached Republican-dominated Springfield as a committed liberal, later writing that he understood politics in the capital "as a full-contact sport, and minded neither the sharp elbows nor the occasional blind-side hit."

  Yet he emerged as a leader while still in his 30s by developing a style former colleagues describe as methodical, inclusive and pragmatic. He cobbled together legislation with Republicans and conservative Democrats, making overtures other progressive politicians might consider distasteful.

  Along the way, he played an important role in drafting bipartisan ethics legislation and health-care reform. He overcame law enforcement objections to codify changes designed to curb racial profiling and to make capital punishment, which he favors, more equitable.

• The Associated Press on his career and legislative record
• An overview from Obamapedia, including this observation:

  What is experience? Previous presidents have been governors, or had a longer term in the Senate or House, before taking office. All of these experiences prepare a person to operate within the system, rather than to change the system. Yet change is precisely what this nation needs. Barack has correctly pointed out that the two of the most experienced people in Washington, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, have led the U.S. into the disaster of Iraq.

  A focus on experience is also a way to avoid talking about qualities such as leadership, intelligence, courage, fairness, judgment, temperament and integrity—qualities that truly matter in a leader. Barack's experience has developed these qualities.

I understand the value of experience. I also know from my own experience in the business world that there are plenty of folks out there who have a lot of experience but pretty bad judgment. It's easy to become so immersed in a system that your own interests become bound up in maintaining the status quo.

And just as often, the new manager or the new kid on the block may advocate change simply for its own sake or to make their mark.

What really matters is judgment: being able to look objectively at a problem, listen to multiple points of view, and then choose a path based on intellect, common sense, pragmatism, and principles. That's an exceedingly difficult balance to find, but one which Obama seems fully capable of achieving.

But then having chosen a path, it takes leadership to get people on board. It takes leadership and an ability to inspire to actually bring about change.

Again, from my experience in the corporate world, I've seen countless great ideas and bold plans discarded, or seen them fail in execution, because leadership was lacking.

No one is questioning Obama's ability to lead or inspire; indeed, those are his strengths.

For more on Obama's positions on the issues, check out the Issues section of his website.