Ever since Barack Obama stepped out onto the national stage, one of the main Republican arguments against him was his lack of executive experience. Much is being said currently about which of the Republican candidates have the most executive experience; stemming from this logic, it seems that whoever has the most will be the best candidate (This curiously seems to make the implicit case that if Obama had executive experience, he would have been more palatable to those claiming executive experience now a must).
But executive experience alone tells us nothing about the character of that experience. Hitler, Castro, and Saddam Hussein surely all had executive experience. Obviously, it goes without saying that we do not want that kind of experience. Substituting the vacuous term "executive experience" for statesmanship, wisdom, and prudence is most definitely a losing gambit and does nothing to foster a citizenry more capable of self-government.
There have been many evil persons in history with "executive experience" but that does not qualify them for the president of the United States. In terms of American executive experience running in the last election, Sarah Palin had more experience than Barack Obama. However, I think our current president's lack of executive experience prior to becoming president has hurt the office of the presidency and our country.
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