Daschle: First Lady isn’t The Apprentice
posted at 6:15 am on March 10, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle told Meet the Press host Tim Russert that being First Lady doesn’t exactly constitute an apprenticeship for the Presidency. Daschle wanted to boost Barack Obama over a suddenly resurgent Hillary Clinton, and he attacked her experience argument. Daschle pointed out that Obama has more time in elective office than Hillary, but he somehow managed to avoid noting that John McCain has more than the both of them put together:
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) on Sunday questioned Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (N.Y.) pitching of herself as the most experienced candidate in the Democratic presidential race, suggesting her years as first lady do not add much to her foreign policy credentials. …
“I worked with her; I know what a good first lady she was,” Daschle said. “But it would be hard for me to draw some degree of connection between being a first lady and having the experience to be the commander in chief.
“I don’t think anyone can look at her experience as first lady and say, for some reason, that qualifies her to run for president of the United States.”
Obama has eleven years combined between his years in the Illinois legislature and the US Senate. Hillary has seven years in the latter, but never held elective office before 2001. John McCain has twenty-four years in Congress, and twenty-one of those years spent on the Armed Services Committee. Neither Obama nor Hillary have any executive experience at all, but McCain has years of military leadership, including as squadron commander in the Navy.
How silly has this infighting over experience between the two Democrats become? Even Daschle has better experience than either Obama or Hillary. He spent a few years as Senate Majority Leader before finally losing his last Senate race shortly after losing the majority. Ed Rendell followed Daschle and tried to argue that both Hillary and Obama are ready to be President but that Hillary is just a little more ready. If so, doesn’t that make McCain a whole lot more ready?
The most ironic part of this debate is that the most experienced Democrats have to go on national TV to argue which of the two least-experienced Democrats have the most experience between them. Maybe next time they should just support candidates with real experience. Fortunately, this year people can vote for John McCain, and no one will have to worry about whether he can answer the 3 AM call.
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Well, at least Obama has been present a lot, apparently.
OldEnglish on March 10, 2008 at 6:25 AM
My poodle is bigger than your dachshund!
p40tiger on March 10, 2008 at 6:35 AM
Toy poodle, that is.
p40tiger on March 10, 2008 at 6:44 AM
The beauty of this argument is that the GOP gets to use it in a couple months … like a sledgehammer.
Jaibones on March 10, 2008 at 6:59 AM
Hey Democrats, You’re Fired!
Chakra Hammer on March 10, 2008 at 7:04 AM
and has what to show for his almost quarter century in the Congress? “Misjudgment” with the other Keating 4; non-stop robo calls in 2000 to me telling me that George W. Bush doesn’t like Catholics (oh, except his convert brother and his sister-in-law); his vindictiveness in fighting the tax cuts for the American people in 2001 and 2003 and then thinks we are too stupid to remember his arguments AGAINST us having our own earned money returned to us and instead has invented this “because no decreases” line. Then how can we “afford” global warming hikes now?
I could go about Juan McVain’s other transgressions, but what I would really like to know is why does anyone EVEN care what the NYT has to say about anything? They are idiots. DUH!
Branch Rickey on March 10, 2008 at 7:17 AM
“Obama knows the forecast because he has his own weatherman”
moxie_neanderthal on March 10, 2008 at 7:46 AM
Hillary Clinton actually has a great deal of experience. She practically ran the White House staff during the Clinton years. This means that she is personally responsible for all of those scandals the nation suffered through, every one — the FBI files, the Lincoln bedroom, Vince Foster’s suicide… everything.
See how it works? She has lots and lots of experience.
(Unrelated to this topic, please visit my political blog, “Plumb Bob Blog: Squaring the Culture,” at http://www.plumbbobblog.com. Thanks.)
philwynk on March 10, 2008 at 9:56 AM
Hillary’s Experience:
– Managing White Water billing records (Lost & Found)
– Managing White House Travel Office (Fired & Hired)
– Managing White House Security (Who hired the bouncer?)
– Slept with President (how many others can claim similar experience ?)
– Close friend and confidant of Arafat & Wife
– Managed to pardon terrorists/drug dealers/tax evaders
– Took tea with Irish wives during Irish Peace Negotiations
– Managed moving operations upon leaving White House
– Trusted husband when he told country “I did not have sex with that woman” (smartest woman in world or most gullible?)
For all his faults on policy, Sen McCain certainly has the experience category sewn up, particulary when Obama and Hillary debate who is the most/least experienced. He will not even need his own ads for the general, just save the dem’s.
jerseyman on March 10, 2008 at 10:27 AM
Apparently the “black bastard child” calls were a-okay, though, huh.
amkun on March 10, 2008 at 10:31 AM
With Clinton? I’d think probably quite a few ;)
dead-duck on March 10, 2008 at 11:00 AM
I remember how Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) at the end of 2001 decided to send the senate home for the holidays and not extend unemployment benefits as they were running out for many of us New Yorkers who were unable to find work after 9/11 tanked the economy. He thought it would hurt GW Bush. All it did was get Mr Daschle (now private citizen Daschle) kicked out the the senate and sent home to South Dakota. Nothing he can do or say will every get my support. Go Hillary!!!
kanda on March 10, 2008 at 3:34 PM
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