Friday, September 17, 2004

Edwards and experience

Matt Yglesias asks: who'd be a better candidate than Kerry?

John Edwards, clearly, has the raw material there, but I think it's pretty clear that such an inexperienced guy would've gotten slammed in the first post-9/11 election.

When the "you're too inexperienced" argument runs up against the "you've screwed everything up" argument, I think the latter wins. It's doubtful that the American public puts very much weight on experience when voting for president. And if Bush wanted to emphasize his greater experience, he'd be on weird territory. The public image of Bush as resolute and determined is pretty well ingrained, while he has no reputation for being an experienced and competent leader.

Not to mention, Edwards would blow Bush away on domestic issues.

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