One More Thought About Political "Experience"

I keep hearing presidential candidates tossing about the word experience, but in a very loose manner. Clinton, for example, touts that she'd be ready to go because, well, she was around the White House before. That may be so, but the argument strikes me as equivalent to the spouse of a world reknown cardiac surgeon saying, "I'll be performing the open heart surgery because, after all, I've been around the business for so many years." All the same, I think I'd rather have the surgeon. Secondary exposure is not the same as primary experience.

And then we have Mitt Romney criticizing Clinton on the same grounds. Here's most of the text from his new TV ad:

Hillary Clinton wants to run the largestenterprise in the world. She hasn't run a corner store. She hasn't run astate. She hasn't run a city.

She has never run anything. And the idea that she could learn to bePresident as an internship just doesn't make any sense.

I have spent my life running things. I've learned how to run a business. I've learned how to run a state. I ran the Olympics. In each case, I've brought change.

Let's take this in two parts. First, did he really have to use the term "internship," which in the context of the Clintons is a loaded word? No, he could have said apprenticeship, but he didn't. Given the sensitivity that political types have toward language, this could ony have been deliberate, so shame on him for trying to ineptly use emotional subtext, becasue I suspect this will only backfire on him.

Second, let's look at how Romney has led. Did anyone else, like the Olympic committee, have a hand in the LA games? Of course, and if Romney were smart, he'd show how he could work with others. But I suspect he doesn't because he really does want to run things. And he has - into walls and ditches, at least in Massachusetts. His major business experience? He was at a venture capital firm, which is far different from running an ongoing concern. But experienced at working with people to really accomplish things? Nope, Romney appears to like giving orders, and that's about as far as effective in politics, even if you're president, as anything can be.