‘Executive Experience’

Posted on 10/30/2008 at 9:44 pm by Bob Cesca

I love politics. I love election years. I love just about everything about the American political process. The campaigns, the drama, the strategy and, especially, the history. Hell, I love it so much, I studied it in college and achieved a bachelor’s degree in the field. I write about it every day — more or less for free.

But the one thing I’m looking forward to the most next week is an end (albeit a temporary end) to some of the ridiculous arguments certain McCain-Palin people are repeating without any clue as to what they’re talking about.

For instance, I’m sick to death of the “executive experience” argument in support of Sarah Palin. More after the jump…


Executive experience is mostly inconsequential. We’ve had a lot of presidents with executive experience who have ended up being terrible presidents. George W. Bush for example. Hell, I have “executive experience” running my own small business, but I can assure you that I’m not qualified to be president.Executive experience is only meaningful if it reveals another, more specific qualification in a candidate. A steely decision-making process. An effective leadership style. A degree of success. But these are all factors that can be attained and revealed through other forms of experience. Running a successful political campaign, for instance. Organizing a legislative staff. Or simply working in the private sector irrespective of advancement to the level of CEO.Dick Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton, one of the world’s most powerful corporations. That’d be huge executive experience. But if I recall correctly, around 85 percent of America now believes that Dick Cheney is unqualified to run up a flight of stairs, much less run the country.Sarah Palin’s big selling point is her executive experience, but all indications prove that she was a corrupt executive — abusing her power and gaming the system. There’s nothing in her “experience” indicative of someone who’s qualified to be a heartbeat away from chief executive of the United States.

This entry was posted in Sarah Palin and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
  • kansasdem

    Just watching McDickhead on CNN. He can’t even read his own lines anymore.I’m not talking about just the occasional fumble!He’s losing it! If he weren’t such a despicable ass-hole I’d feel sorry for him!To be quite blunt – I hope he doesn’t drop dead before the election!

  • incredulous72

    Damn Right Bob!And what the hell kind of ‘executive experience’ does McCain have?!From the looks of his campaign not a damn bit! He’s run that into the ground the same way these disgusting so-called chief executives have ran . . .Bear StearnsLehman BrothersWashington Mutual&AIG. . . into the ground!Sorry Asses!

  • JG

    another one of the Zombie BBQ narratives that is a FALSE POSITIVE.I think the exec experience of Obama’s campaign has been vastly under-rated and usually dismissed when brought up in the BBQ media–I’ll have more to say about this on Tuesday…but I will say this–there is no way in hell HRC would be competing in NC, VA, MT, IN, GA, MO, and a few others…nothing against her, but this guy is THE NEW PARADIGM–

  • http://www.osborneink.com Matt Osborne

    Word for the weekend: “Rational exuberance.”Crunching the numbers, there’s no way McCain can win, even with huge voter suppression, unless the GOP engages in outright ballot fraud:http://voteforamerica.net/editorials/Comments.aspx?ArticleId=134&ArticleName=A%20Voter%20Suppression%20Model

  • ch1naski

    Completely agree Bob. One of the many other things I will not miss are media quotes of people saying, “I’m not prejudiced but I can’t vote for the colored guy.” Seriously, I’ve heard that reported a number of times and it drives me almost as crazy as 23% of Texans believing that Obama is Muslim.So many things that make my head want to explode and the idea of Palin running the country is at the top of the list.

  • http://obamaproject.windonwater.net QueenTiye

    Yes, yes, YES! :-) QT

  • http://swashzone.blogspot.com/ Allosaurus

    Judgment and wisdom are more important than “executive experience.” What most of us like about Obama, I’ll venture to say, is that he’s extremely intelligent, well-grounded, and as genuine as we have any business expecting a politician to be. He’s also skilled in the political process and seems adaptable enough to learn from his mistakes, to the extent that a fallible human being can. If we think politics should be the art of the possible in the service of pursuing the good life both individually and collectively, I’d say Obama is our man. As for the Republicans of today, they apparently see government as a protection racket: we will keep you safe, and you must do what you’re told.

  • http://swashzone.blogspot.com/ Allosaurus

    Judgment and wisdom are more important than “executive experience.” What most of us like about Obama, I’ll venture to say, is that he’s extremely intelligent, well-grounded, and as genuine as we have any business expecting a politician to be. He’s also skilled in the political process and seems adaptable enough to learn from his mistakes, to the extent that a fallible human being can. If we think politics should be the art of the possible in the service of pursuing the good life both individually and collectively, I’d say Obama is our man. Too many Republicans today apparently see government as a protection racket: we will keep you safe, and you must do what you’re told.

  • http://swashzone.blogspot.com/ Allosaurus

    Sorry about the extra post–the second message is the one I meant to post; I accidentally hit send before making a change and didn’t see that the first version had gone through.

  • jasperjava

    A-friggin’-MEN! “Executive experience” being the mayor of Wasilla and governor of Alaska? What do these people think the President DOES? Coordinate garbage pick-up for a town of 8000? Build roads and bridges and pipelines to nowhere?When idiots said that Sarah Palin had more “executive experience” than Obama and Biden combined, they forgot to mention that she had therefore more “executive experience” than…… wait for it…JOHN McCAIN!

  • http://nicki.mindsay.com Nicki

    Sarah Palin is barely qualified to be dog catcher. I’m really not sure how she managed to get elected in Alaska. I’m hoping once all this mess is over, she’ll be recalled and sent back to the hole she crawled out of. I will say that I would rather listen to the experience argument than the “black liberation theology” crap that is getting spread around the web.Btw, Kansasdem – glad to see another Kansan floating around here…hopefully we can make the gap less than 24% this time around!

  • http://www.dugshop.com Paula Bonhomme

    My biz partner and I decided to do a drinking game the night of Palin’s debut at the Repub convention – one shot for every mention of “executive experience.” I knew I was in trouble when Orrin Hatch popped up. I did three shots in less than a minute.

  • Eruleptanero

    Nicki -I’m a Kansan too, and I’ve been hanging around for a while; I just don’t post too much. In fact, this is probably just my second (or maybe third) post.

  • PedroWilsoni

    And I’m scared of Sarah Palin and her “church”.Must-see trailer for upcoming doco: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-wilson/sarah-palins-churches-and_b_124611.html

  • Andhakari

    Bob, I think I know how you feel. You hate the lies, but your response is to face them and fight them. After a while though it gets very tiresome. The lies just keep coming, and it seems harder to get people to listen to the truth than it is for them to make up new lies.A thick skin, a good strong fire in the belly, and a capacity to not take the BS too seriously is mandatory. When you lose any of those, it’s time to take a break.Keep laughing or the anger will eat you alive.

  • Poleezz

    After reading many articles and posts about Barack Obama the one word that is underused in describing him is WISDOM. Perhaps the word is out of fashion, is too weighty, or the biblical connotation is unappealing to some of his supporters. To me though, it seems the perfect word to describe him. Above all else, this is the reason I’m supporting Barack Obama. WISDOM.

  • Poleezz

    Hey Pedro thanks for posting that link. That is amazing! People may be aware of her charismatic religious background, but whether they know the extent of it we can’t say for sure. Anyway, it was somewhat of a revelation to me (no pun intended). You have a right to be scared. It’s freakin scary!

  • Strawdog

    Dick Cheney has more executive experience than any other possible candidate for office. Maybe something else matters as well, such as integrity.