Chris Elliot writes this favorable commentary in the New Hamphire paper, Portsmouth Herald News.
I had the pleasure this past Sunday of hearing our next president, Barack Obama, speak at The Frank Jones Center. That is a pretty provocative sentence, one that I’ve uttered several times this week, to which my Republican friends have reacted with predictable disdain.
"He is a junior senator with only scant experience and no significant legislative voting record. How does that qualify him for the presidency?" they ask. Usually I don’t say anything right away, in order to see if by themselves they come around to the idea that the current Republican president can’t read, write, or speak English.
It’s weird. The biggest job in the world now seems to have no particular requirements. The job I’m doing now in developing documentation for professional recording software requires knowledge of music theory, computer literacy, writing skills, and a familiarity with industry standard authoring tools. There is no way George W. Bush or Barack Obama would win this job over me in an interview.
Some of our most recent presidents have had pretty sketchy resumes. From Carter their backgrounds are peanut farmer, "B" movie actor, CIA bureau chief (pretty cool), disbarred attorney, and now the presidency is occupied by a failed oil baron who went on to be a failed sports franchise owner.
Obama’s resume looks pretty good next to Bush in this now nebulous set of requirements to become president. At least he’s never lost millions of investor dollars because of his bad decisions, nor has he ever completely mismanaged a war. Also, I’d love to see their university grade-point averages side by side.
Obama is smart. He spoke extemporaneously for a half hour about myriad topics, without even notes on index cards. Bush without a prepared speech, notecards and a teleprompter is like listening to a male version of Anna Nicole Smith.
