By Loraine Burger, Michelle Alexander, Jamaal Bollinger and Chris Meyers
Central to the 2008 election has been the issue of experience and how prepared the candidates are to enter the White House. With the age gap between the presidential nominees John McCain, 72, and Barack Obama, 47, and vice presidential nominees Sarah Palin, 44, and Joe Biden, 65, experience has played more of a role than ever.
After interviewing 18 U.S. citizens, ages ranging from 18-49, we’ve found that experience does not rate as the most important issue on the minds of Americans. When asked to rank experience amongst the other issues, we’ve found, on average, that it was ranked third in terms of importance, beaten out by taxes/economy and energy.
“Experience is important but we need to fix the economy first,” said Kristen Meyers, 25, a registered Independent from Franklin, Mass.
Steve Tower, 20, a registered Libertarian from Willington, Mass., agreed. “Experience is not as important as concrete action. Any average Joe could be President if they had the common sense to pick advisors that have experience,” he said.”
While the interviewees believed experience wasn’t an overriding factor, the issue still weighs on the minds of voters. Topics such as McCain’s military career, Obama’s community leadership, Biden’s lengthy senate tenure, and Palin’s understanding of a blue-collar family, were cited.
Those interviewed acknowledged McCain’s vast experience. “[He] has a lot of experience in national security and war and can relate to a lot of defense issues that are current,” said Zach Goodman, 23, an unregistered Amherst resident. Tower added, “His experiences in his military and private life served to ground him with the average American.”
McCain has been in Congress for 26 years, between the House and Senate, and was elected chairman of the International Republican Institute in 1993 and the Senate Commerce Committee in 1997. He ran for President in 2000 but lost the nomination to George Bush. In 2001 he co-sponsored the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which federalized airport security, and created the transportation security administration. He supported the Iraq war troop surge in 2007 and also pushed a bill to provide citizenship for illegal immigrants in the United States, but was defeated twice.
Despite his well-acknowledged career as a politician, many of those interviewed were not swayed by this alone.
“It’s admirable that he’s spent a long time serving the country, but I have fundamental disagreement with his policies, and that’s really what’s important to me,” said registered Democrat Sam Michelson, 23, of New York City.
Others agreed that policy is more significant than overall experience.
“I think he knows what he’s doing,” said registered voter Bonnie Glover, 21, of Northfield, Mass. “His experiences are something to be proud of. Experience isn’t everything. Anyone that old would have a lot of experience but that doesn’t make him the right man for the job.”
In stark contrast to McCain’s lengthy record, Obama’s a relative newcomer to the major political scene.
“Obama’s personality is much more people-oriented and he seems to care more about the country as a whole as opposed to making the rich richer,” said Nathan Alexander, 24, a registered Democrat from Skiatook, Okl. Michelson agrees, “I think leadership qualities are more important for a President.”
Matt Cadwallader, vice president of the UMass Democrats, said, “It’s really judgment that counts. Senator McCain has shown he doesn’t have good judgment.”
Obama studied at the Occidental College in Los Angeles then transferred to Columbia University, graduating in 1983 with a degree in politics. He moved to Chicago in 1985 where he worked as an organizer for low-income residents after working at Business International Corporation and NY PIRG.
In 1998 he attended Harvard Law School. Two years later he was the first African American elected as the editor of the Harvard Review. In 1991 he graduated from Harvard magna cum laude and soon after he joined the firm Miner, Barnhill, and Galland as a civil rights lawyer and taught at the University of Chicago law school. In 2000, Obama ran for the House of Representatives in the democratic primary and lost.
In 2003, Obama ran for U.S. Senate and won the vote at 52 percent in 2004.
“He hasn’t been in Washington long enough and he’s very young, which would have a negative impact on deciding my vote,” said Owen Bollinger, 23, a registered voter from Santa Barbara, Calif.
Tower also disapproves, saying “Obama has very little experience in running anything at all, and has not proven he is capable of bringing the ‘change’ he so often speaks of.”
Anthony Licausi, 21, from New York, said, “Obama, if elected, will drive the economy into a deeper recession than we are already in, due to his ‘redistribution of wealth policies’ and his desire to raise capital gains and dividend taxes.”
After reviewing the opinions of the interviewees on the experiences of McCain and Obama, it is evident that there are those who believe experience matters and those who believe it does not. The same holds true for Vice Presidential candidates, Sarah Palin and Joe Biden.
“Palin has little experience in traditional Washington politics, but at least is familiar with being an executive,” says Tower.
Palin led the “Fellowship of Christian Athletes” in high school and graduated in 1982. She won “Miss Congeniality” in the Miss Wasilla beauty pageant and was the runner-up for the Miss Alaska title. In 1982 she attended Hawaii Pacific University, attended North Idaho College in 1983, attended University of Idaho from 1984-1985; and attended Matanuska-Susitna College in 1985. She returned to the University of Idaho from 1986-1987 and graduated that year. Palin ran for public office in 1992 at the age of 28. In 1996 she became the mayor of Wasilla. She was elected governor of Alaska in 2006 after being defeated in 2002.
The topic of Palin’s experience set off a wave of negative comments from the interviewees.
“I can’t have a serious conversation about Palin; she is a joke. She couldn’t name one Supreme Court decision other than Roe v. Wade,” said Michelson.
“All the experience in the world wouldn’t make me trust her with the fate of my country,” said Glover.
Kwame Graves-Fulgham, 23, from Boston said, “I watched the vice presidential debate; it doesn’t seem like she is very experienced and that would have a negative impact on me voting for her.”
Like the presidential candidates, the vice presidential candidates stand on opposite ends of the experience spectrum as well. Biden has served far longer in the Senate than either McCain or Obama. Our interviewees weighed in on Obama’s pick for vice president.
“He has a lot of experience; he’s been in Washington a long time. His son was just deployed to Iraq and he has an understanding of how foreign policy works. In my eyes he is a moderate politician, which is the best kind,” said Bollinger.
Holly Alexander, 49, a registered Democrat from Pembroke Pines, Fla. agrees. “Biden appears to be very knowledgeable and knows the issues that need to be concentrated on,” she said.
Biden graduated in 1965 from the University of Delaware. He received a law degree from Syracuse University in 1968. In 1972 at the age of 29, he became a member of the Senate. In 1975 he began his long tenure on the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, which he still sits on today, as its chair. In 1994 he passed the Violence Against Women Act. Biden began his second stint in 2007 as Foreign Relations Committee chair, where he previously sat from 2001-2003.
When asked about the coverage of experience by the media, our interviewees had some differing opinions about what was fair. Some, like Tower, believed the media’s focus was incredibly unbalanced, saying, “the media portrayal of McCain and Biden is roughly fair—compared to what’s normal for elections—but Obama receives no heat for any of his flaws, and is all but granted a free ride by major media outlets. Palin has received harsher criticism than any other candidate, and has been absolutely skewered by popular media sources like blogs, the daily show, etc. This is completely unfair considering the free pass Obama gets.”
Glover agreed that the media portrayals have not been fair, but have more harsh on Obama than McCain.
“It depends on the media source. Some media are so biased that they make it seem like Obama just walked out of the ghetto and has no political experience while making McCain seem like he’s been president for 100 years. Clearly that isn’t fair,” he said.
Most of those interviewed agreed that the idea of experience is not important enough in comparison to substantial policies to sway their decision in the election one way or the other. Yet with Americans and the media especially, experience has played a huge part in the coverage we have seen and will play a part through the election and the presidency.