The Big Picture blog has a great post that uses historical and family pictures of John McCain and Barack Obam to capture their lives from childhood to present.
First they profile John McCain. The pictures show John McCain as an infant, as a member of the Naval Academy, a Navy pilot, a P.O.W, a war hero, as Lt. Commander, as a Navy Commander, as a Navy Captain, as U.S. Rep from Arizona, and then finally as a Senator from Arizona.
Next they profile Barack Obama. The pictures show Obama as a boy, another as a boy, a 3rd picture as a boy, a 4th as a boy, as a college student, as a law student, as President of a student run law journal, as Univ of Chicago Professor, as a Senator, and as a father.
At its best a Presidential campaign is an extended job interview for the highest executive position in the United States of America. As part of any interview process you must review a candidates work history and experience. This applies if you are hiring a young man to mow your lawn or if you are hiring the next leader of the free world. These pictures tell a great deal about the differences in experience between our two major party candidates.
The following is a direct quote from BarackObama.com “He went on to earn his law degree from Harvard in 1991, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Soon after, he returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer and teach constitutional law. Finally, his advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate, where he served for eight years. In 2004, he became the third African American since Reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. Senate.”
To be clear, Barack Obama started his term as a U.S. Senator on Jan 4, 2005, which means he has served a grand total of 2.5 years in the United States Senate and 2 of those he has been campaigning for President. He has missed 268 of 1240 votes (22%) since Jan 6, 2005. If you were hiring an individual for a critical executive position in your organization would you consider a person with 2 years of experience who missed work 22% of the time?
Well let’s be fair you don’t need to be a Washington insider to be President just look at Obama’s executive experience. Um, wait never mind. He has never run a business nor has he ever been in charge of anything more than a community activist group.
John McCain has served in the US Congress since 1982 and spent almost 30 years in the United States Military prior to running for Congress.
This leaves us with one final question. Does Experience still count in this country?
It certainly should.
