Feb 29, 2008 — See The Chicago Tribune
Experience has emerged as a big issue in the Democratic presidential primary, with Sen. Hillary Clinton citing her 35 years' experience and "action, not just talk," and Sen. Barack Obama touting his 20 years of providing "real solutions to the American people." In the sound-bite realm of politics, experience has been oversimplified and become a catch-all term that overlooks traits that scholars say are more important but harder to sell on the campaign trail -- like judgment. "There's really no experience that's going to help anyone be president. Everything a president does is on-the-job training," said Terry Sullivan, a political scientist at UNC.
