EXPERIENCE DOESN'T NECESSARILY TRANSLATE INTO GREATNESS IN THE WHITE HOUSE

By BERRY CRAIG

            MAYFIELD, Ky. -- The nation was in crisis as a presidential election approached.

            One party’s nominee was an Illinoisan with little Washington experience.

 Some people said he didn’t have what it takes to be president, especially in difficult times.

           But Abraham Lincoln went down in history as one of America ’s greatest presidents.

            Before he was elected, Lincoln ’s Washington tenure was brief. The first Republican president had served just one term in the U.S. House, in 1847-1849. He lost a bid for the U.S. Senate in 1858.

            Barack Obama hopes to be the next Democratic president. The senator from the Land of Lincoln has only been in office since 2005. Hence, the Republicans claim he is too much of a rookie to lead the country.

            Would Obama be another Lincoln ? Most Republicans would answer “no.” But the GOP apparently thinks he will be the Democratic nominee.

            So the Republicans say he is a candidate way out of his league. Their guy, Sen. John McCain of Arizona , is the real pro in the race, they add.  

            McCain was elected to Congress in 1982, served two terms and got elected to the Senate in 1986. I saw one Republican on TV scoffing and measuring Obama’s senate time in days. A GOP TV ad says Obama lacks the requisite experience to be commander in chief. McCain recently said the Democrat shows “naiveté and inexperience and a lack of judgment.”

            Not surprisingly, the Republicans tout McCain’s military record. A U.S. Naval Academy graduate, he was a navy pilot and Vietnam war hero.

            Obama is not a military veteran. Thus, the Republicans say McCain would be a better commander in chief for thousands of Americans who are in harm’s way in Iraq .

            Meanwhile, stateside the economy is slumping. Iraq seems an endless drain of American blood and treasure. If the polls are right, most Americans believe the country is on the wrong track (in Iraq , too).

            The Republicans say McCain’s many years in the military and in Washington make him the candidate to put the country on the right track. But does experience always count in running wars and governments?

            Lincoln ’s Civil War rival had much more military and political experience than he did.

            Confederate President Jefferson Davis was a West Pointer and Mexican-American War hero. Lincoln served briefly as a militia officer in the Black Hawk War, a minor conflict most Americans have never heard of.

            Davis led men in many bloody battles. Lincoln didn’t fire a shot in anger.

            In addition, Davis had been a congressman, U.S. senator and secretary of war. Lincoln ’s opposition to the Mexican-American War was so unpopular in his district that he opted not to run again.

            Yet as a commander in chief and as a head of state, Lincoln gets far better marks from most historians than Davis . Historians commonly characterize Davis as stubborn, vain and uninspiring. On the other hand, Lincoln grew in office. His strong, decisive hand put slavery on the road to extinction and guided the Union to victory in the Civil War.

            Naturally, the Republicans will keep trying to play the experience card against Obama. But the Democrats can cite one of the GOP’s own as proof that candidates dismissed as lightweights on the campaign trail can become giants in the White House.