Quote Machine

Presidential Candidate Barack Obama delivered his "Closing Argument" speech today to Iowa's voters.  Obama harped on his "outsider" perspective and even borrowed a quote from Former Presidential Candidate Bill Clinton to make his point:

The truth is you can have the right kind of experience and the wrong kind of experience.  Mine is rooted in the real lives of real people, and it will bring real results if we just have the courage to change.

I have no idea what "rooted in real live of real people" means, but the first sentence resonates with me.  Obama has cast himself as a Washington outsider, and he is.  He's also a foreign policy outsider.  While he served eight years in Illinois State Legislature, he has been a member of the U.S. Senate for fewer than three years.  Perhaps he has the "right experience" to be Governor of Illinois but his relevant Presidential experience is practically nil. 

Alas, technicalities such as "qualifications" didn't stop him from quoting.  He went on to cite a famous Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. line:

We are at a defining moment in our history.

Few would disagree with Obama, but does he expect voters to trust the nation to someone as inexperienced as he?  Short of the Harvard Law Review, he has never led an organization.  That scares the crap out of me.

In light of Benazir Bhutto's assassination, we are reminded of the importance of foreign policy and management experience.  Obama's minimal experience with both hasn't kept him from promising voters universal health care, increasing Social Security (despite its solvency problem) benefits to seniors, and comprehensive immigration reform.

If you believe he has the "right experience," perhaps you'll also believe that he can deliver on his wild promises.