Obama and JFK

2-11-08 SHORT HILLS: Judy and I were talking about JFK a couple days ago and calculated that were he still alive, he would be 92 this year. [He was 44 in 1960.] How’s that for scary?

Why did we go there? It started with Obama and his ability to electrify audiences like Kennedy did. He is, BTW, our choice for the Dems and President. Check out this quote from five months before the Iraq war started:

“I don’t oppose all wars. And I know that in this crowd today, there is no shortage of patriots, or of patriotism. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war … I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.”

I got the quote from an article in The Atlantic by Andrew Sullivan. It was sent to me by WGBL. [That’s not a radio station.] Here’s the link to the article: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200712/obama

Is that prescient or what? So we turn to the question of experience, supposedly Obama’s weak point. I used to practice medicine, consulted for other docs and so got a look at how they managed their cases. It became clear that sometimes “experience” is just repeatedly making the same mistakes.

Hanging around the scene for a long time doesn’t necessarily make your judgment better, and repeating the same errors over and over doesn’t make you less incompetent, but highlights your incompetence. Obama, as a new senator, saw the folly of this war and predicted the disastrous consequences--an example of good judgment at the start of a career. Some of us get it right away, and some of us never get it. A lot of “experience” doesn’t compensate for or exclude or erase lousy judgment. Take the case of dubya.