Gravitas Not Selling This Year
After George W. Bush selected Dick Cheney as his running mate in 2000, news outlets announced that Cheney would bring much needed gravitas to the Republican presidential ticket. Then, when Bush became president, he assembled a highly experienced national defense team which included Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. Nine months later this group failed to anticipate or do anything to prevent the 9-11 terrorist attacks. A year and a half later they launched a preemptive attack against a country that posed no immediate threat to us, and ordered our military to police the streets of the most violent neighborhoods in the world. Experience is overrated.
Hillary has touted her experience throughout the presidential campaign. It’s not working. John McCain has signaled that he will follow Clinton’s lead in the general election and present himself as the seasoned warrior in contrast to the untested Barack Obama. But there’s no reason to believe that he will succeed where Clinton has failed.
When a company hires a new CEO, they don’t always choose the most experienced candidate. Sometimes it’s better to hire the person who doesn’t claim to have all the answers. The candidate with the longest resume may not have the flexibility to adapt to a new world order.
Both Clinton and McCain seem to have an air of entitlement about them, as though they’ve earned the right to serve as president and Obama didn’t. But it should be obvious by now that voters aren’t looking to pick the “next in line” candidate this year. No one’s crossing bridges to the past anymore.
Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton
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