Experience - Not All It's Cracked Up to Be!

I have been thinking about the "Experience" factor in this year's Presidential campaign. McCain's campaign is touting his experience, and say that with this experience comes the "wisdom" to be Commander in Chief. But, why then, has Barack Obama been so right about so many of the issues concerning the war in Iraq? And, why doesn't John McCain know that Pakistan and Iraq do not have a common border, that Czechloslovakia hasn't been a country for 15 years, and the difference between the extremists and al-Qaeda, and on and on and on.
I spent 25 years in the education system, and as a beginning teacher looked up to those with years of experience as "wise." But it was much later (when I became one of the elders) that I realized my best teaching was done the first half of my career before the institution had formed the way I taught. It was always the younger staff that stayed in the building for hours after school ended, while the more experienced left 30 minutes after the students. Sometimes the connection with the changing world and the vitality, enthusiasm, dedication and creativity you have in earlier years is more important than years of service. Obama is vibrant, energized, connected, extremely intelligent, honest, and globally in tune. McCain is experienced . . . . in the "old ways" of how politics works.