As this ridiculous 2008 election soldiers on, I keep hearing that what is really helping Mr. McCain at the polls is the fact he is more experienced than Obama. Honestly, when Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinch left the race, having nearly created my dream ticket, I kinda zoned out. Both are remaining choices are part of Congressional body that has a 9% approval rating, yet they are 'mavericks' and 'agents of change'? At least one man wants this charade to end. I digress. [NOTE: above image is a reproduction of a great poster created by PJ Chmiel]
Regardless, this morning, I received a little message that got me slightly involved again:
You couldn't get a job at McDonalds and become district manager -
after 143 days of experience.
You couldn't become chief of surgery -
after 143 days of experience of being a surgeon.
You couldn't get a job as a teacher and be the superintendent -
after 143 days of experience.
You couldn't join the military and become a colonel -
after a 143 days of experience.
You couldn't get a job as a reporter & become the nighty news anchor -
After 143 days of experience.
BUT.... 'From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United State Senator, to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory committee, he logged 143 days of experience in the Senate. That's how many days the Senate was actually in session and working.
After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he was ready to be Commander In Chief, leader of the Free World . .. 143 days.
We all have to start somewhere. The senate is a good start, but after 143 days, that's all it is - a start. AND, strangely, A large sector of the American public is okay with this And Campaigning for him.
We wouldn't accept this in our own line of work, Yet Some are okay with this for the President of the United States of America? Come on folks, we are not voting for the next American Idol! Please, please forward this before it's too late!!!!
143 days? I know Obama is young by presidential standards but something about this just seemed 'loaded' to me (and the fact it was from a christian fundamentalist didn't help my suspicions). Seeing as the name of this site is sixtruths, I thought maybe it was time to live up to that moniker. Its been a slow workday for me so I took 30-45 minutes of my time to figure this one out.
Is McCain that much more experienced than Obama? (I also included Bush as a point of reference for experience).
The Facts
George W. Bush never held a federal office before becoming commander-in-chief. He was governor of Texas for about 6 years, which amounts to about 2100 days (Jan 1995-Dec 2000) of experience at only the state level. Being a Texan, I can tell you that in our state constitution the governor position is largely that of a figurehead, akin to how the English monarchy 'leads' the UK. The real power lies in the lieutenant governor position, one Bush never held. Further, he formed an exploratory committee to examine the viability of a presidential bid in March 1999 having served less than 1600 days in state office, zero at the federal level. Sources: http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/03/02/president.2000/bush/
John McCain joined the US house in January 1983 at age 47, having no prior political experience to speak of, much the same way Obama would join the senate years later. He was a US Congressman for 4 years (1460 days) before becoming a Senator in January 1987, a post he has held to this day ~6800 days. John McCain first formed an exploratory committee to determine if a presidential bid was viable on December 30th, 1999. He had 3200 days in the Senate at that point and about 4600 total days of federal level government experience before launching a bid for the 2000 presidency. Those numbers each increase to roughly 4400 and 5800 days respectively for the 2008 presidential bid (might be off a little).
Barack Obama was first elected to the Illinois senate in January 1997 at age 36, having no prior political experience to that. He was in the Illinois Senate until November 2004, totaling 2700 days. Obama was then elected to the US senate in Jan 2005 and has served there ever since, about 1100 days. He first formed an exploratory committee about a presidential bid in January 2007, having served 3300 days in public service, 2700 of them at the state level and 600 of them at the state level. Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/16/AR2007011600529.html
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Just to refresh you, the original email brought into question how many days Obama had in senate experience before (what I assume they are referring to) he had formally launched his presidential exploratory committee, which ascertains whether or not a given candidacy has any realistic potential of succeeding (very debatable - see Al Sharpton).
Here is the quick answer to that question:
About 600 days
The email I received was off by a factor of 4. Now, there is argument to be had in determining how much of that political experience is worthwhile but thats not for here. Determining which days he actually did 'work' is far beyond the capabilities of any chain email to discern, of that I am sure.
To give the email some credit here, Obama may have hinted that he was interested in the presidency far earlier to some source but there are no official references to it, either on the internet or in that email to my knowledge.
This email is especially disingenous because they are trying to
conflate Obama's limited politcal experience at the federal level and
his vastly greater total politcal experience overall. McCain's experience at the federal level is 8-10X as great as Obama's so the more experienced moniker does fit there. However, in total experience McCain barely hangs onto a his 2:1 advantage. And if you factor in McCain is Obama's senior by 25 years, they are actually relatively similar in public service experience.
A Better Metric
In my opinion, a much more useful statistic with which can compare
these men's experience is what percentage of their lives were spent in
public service.
Bush - 15 of 62 years or about 24% of his life
McCain - 25 of 72 years or about 35% (jumps to 58% if you count his military time)
Obama - 12 of 47 years or about 26% (jumps to about 34% if you count his time teaching at the university of chicago)
McCain leads the pack by 2X-3X but when his age (72) is compared with Obama (47), again their years in service are more similar (if Obama continues to serve as McCain has).
In Conclusion...
Overall, that email was a complete farse (as I had suspected) but McCain is more experienced than Obama, roughly about twice as experienced. Whether or not that will make him a better commander-in-chief is your decision in November, if Diebold doesn't steal your vote first.
Don't forget those hanging chads...
For the record, I think all three of these men are terrible choices to lead a nation this nation right now, considering none of them have the slightest idea about economics and the true causes of our current recession/depression.
