Different kinds of experience

Reader comment on: Thomas Sowell on Serfdom and Slavery

Submitted by ben (United States), Apr 20, 2010 10:12

While Obama has not run a business (like so many of our Presidents - Bush ran a failed business. . .) he has other experience which is valuable. Community organizing, despite the ridicule heaped on it by Palin, provides insight into people's lives and the levers of power. Being a law professor provides experience on communicating complex topics in simple language. Living abroad during formative years of his life provides experience on how other people think and act. One can of course argue that these types of experience are not as important as private sector business experience, but it is not true in the least to say he has no experience. He just doesn't have the kind of experience that some people want.

I also find this line a bit comical in light of recent events - "personally paying the consequences of his mistakes. . ." if only a few more bankers and hedge fun managers actually did pay a personal consequence! By Sowell's construction, the person most qualified to be president is a failed businessperson.

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