David Broder is one of the dumbest political columnists I've ever read. Seriously. In a real sense he's dumber than William Kristol and so many other right-wing idiots, who work off false assumptions and get all basic facts wrong but whose delusions still can be internally consistent. And today Broder proves it yet again.
Details below the jump.
Broder's column today takes to task the 3 major Dem prez contenders for lack of "executive" experience.
But right away Broder can't decide what that means.
It was fascinating to watch the three top contenders for the Democratic nomination discuss their concept of the presidency during Tuesday night's MSNBC debate in Las Vegas. But it was also stunning to realize that the three current and former senators who have survived the shakeout process -- Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards -- have not a day of chief executive experience behind them.
By contrast, the Republican field is loaded with people who are accustomed to being in charge of large organizations. Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee were governors of their home states of Massachusetts and Arkansas, Rudy Giuliani served as the mayor of New York City, and John McCain, as he likes to remind audiences, commanded the largest squadron in the Navy air wing.
So Broder decides that "chief executive experience" equals "being in charge of a large organization" equals "commanding the largest squadron in the Navy air wing." This is beyond stupid and probably (the qualification included only because I can't literally read his mind) dishonest...Broder has a way of dishonestly peddling his own biases rather than stating them outright, and then pretending he has no biases at all, or that they are really the public's biases (see below). His feeble attempts at coyness are part of both his dishonesty and stupidity. It shouldn't have to be said, but I'll say it anyway: no one in the world considers commanding a Navy air squad to be "chief executive experience." McCain's political career is limited exclusively to Capitol Hill, and political experience is the only experience voters take seriously with the rare exception of top military commanders like the original GW (Washington, not Dubya), Grant, Ike, or, today, Colin Powell if he wanted to run. McCain's military experience clearly isn't on their level. But Broder is simultaneously too stupid and too dishonest to get that. McCain is a Senator, period.
Broder continues:
John Kennedy was the last sitting senator to be elevated into the presidency. Since then, the former governors of Georgia, California, Arkansas and Texas have dominated the list of successful candidates.
All of them stumbled during their tenures in the White House, and only Ronald Reagan left the presidency with his place in the history books seemingly securely enhanced.
So having been a Governor isn't all that and a bag of chips after all, David? But wait!...
But the public remains convinced that the Oval Office is a place for executive talents -- which makes the current Democratic field something of an anomaly.
Yes, David's conviction of knowing what "the public" wants or will consider or think about rears it ugly head. This is one of his favorite rhetorical tricks: phrase his own biases as innocently as possible, as if they are America's biases. This is what Glenn Greenwald constantly points out about the national press corps: the Villagers constantly project that their own personal opinions and biases are shared by most people.
And Broder concludes his missive with this same rhetorical trick:
The burden of proof of readiness to be president is heaviest on those who have never borne executive responsibility. And that is something voters will have to weigh, whichever of the Democrats is the nominee.
This is reminiscent, almost verbatim, of Broder's column some months back insisting "the public will have to weigh" whether we want Bill back in the White House as one consideration in whether to vote for Hillary. I'm a strong Obama supporter and have problems with Hillary, but it's just that kind of inanity by Broder and other corporate media crackpots that makes me occasionally hope Hillary is the next President: just to drive them up the fucking wall.