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August 28, 2008

Great new McCain ad: 'Remote Control' (Updated)

Topics: Political News and commentaries

Team McCain is proving they know a little about technology themselves.

"You know, I am a believer in ... in knowing what you're doing when you apply for a job. Uh, and I think that ... if I were seriously to consider running on a national ticket, I would essentially have to start now, before having served a day in the Senate. Now there may be some people who are comfortable doing that, but I am not one of those people." -- Barack Obama, 2004 and from the video.

Taking a look 1:03 into the video where Obama talks about the importance of knowing what you're doing when you apply for a job, Barack Obama served 143 days in the senate and no days in the military (via William M. Briggs) before he began his run for president. John McCain served 26 years in the senate and 22 years in the military before he began his campaign.

... The "143 days" came about this way

From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United States Senator, to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory Committee, he logged 143 days of experience in the Senate.

That's how many days the Senate was actually in session and working.

The one single Senate committee that he headed never even met -- once.

After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he was ready to be Commander In Chief, Leader of the Free World, and fill the shoes of Abraham Lincoln, FDR, JFK and Ronald Reagan.

... during the 26 years McCain was a senator, the upper house was not in session continually, so to be fair we would have to only count the number of days the senate was actually in session over those years. This is unnecessary, because we all know that government and political business does not stop just because the gavel sounds. Therefore, we should give Obama, just as we are giving McCain, full credit for his time in service, which is to say 3.5 years since his swearing in as a senator in January of 2005. He still gets 0 years (or days) for military service. We also have to, since we gave it to Obama, award McCain his extra half year for the first part of 2008.

Let's put that in table form for easier comparison:
Obama McCain
Senate 3.5 26.5
Military 0 22
Total 3.5 48.5

Which is to say, McCain has about 14 times as much experience as Obama. However, this still isn't an entirely fair comparison because McCain, who is 26 years older than Obama, has had a greater chance of gaining time on the job. To make the match up commensurable, we have to adjust for age.

In other words, there's no real comparison between John McCain and Barack Obama - it's not even close - they simply aren't even in the same league, much less the same ballpark.

Related: Obama's 143 days, Hillary's duty, and the politics of "experience" and "change"

Posted by Richard at August 28, 2008 8:12 AM

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• Great new McCain ad: 'Remote Control' (Updated) - Aug 28, 2008