Today, our local paper had an opinion piece by Susan Estrich titled “Political experience can't be discounted”

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20100614/OPINION06/6110344/1039/OPINION02/Susan-Estrich--Political-experience-can-t-be-discounted

In the piece, Ms. Estrich references an earlier column by Willian Safire:

“Some years ago, the late New York Times and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist William Safire wrote a great column comparing politicians to plumbers. It was during one of those periods when (like now) experience had become a dirty word in politics and incumbency was a veritable curse.

There was nothing worse you could say about someone than to call him a "career politician" — just what California Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman called her rival for the office only yesterday.

Safire's point was a simple one: Would you hire a plumber who'd never done any plumbing to fix your pipes?

Why is politics different? If the plumber messes up, your toilet might flood or, worse, your pipes might burst. If the governor gets it wrong...”

Now, I’m no William Safire, but I may know a thing or two about the differences between plumbing and politics, and I’ve got a few bones to pick with this analogy and Ms. Estrich.

Ms. Estrich goes on develop her theme that politics and governing are hard and that we should let experienced individuals handle the job. She illustrates her position with a few gaffes that Nikki Haley, Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman have made during their campaigns this spring, saying that “unprecedented number of newbies … have never faced the sort of intense scrutiny that a general election campaign brings”.

Before we get back to our poor friends the plumbers (who, I think, maybe a little angry with us for comparing them to politicians), I’m would like to point out that Carly Fiorina & Meg Whitman have / had more real life executive experience than our current POTUS did before / while he was running for office. If she considers them to be under-experienced newbies, why didn’t she consider his lack of experience as sufficient to preclude him from the highest office in the land? If running a Fortune 500 company doesn’t adequately prepare you to be a governor or a senator, how does being a senator for one term qualify you to be the POTUS?

If we only allowed experienced individuals to apply for particular jobs (plumbing, politics, governing), then how would anyone gain any practical experience in those fields? I believe that there are a number of highly intelligent individuals with real world leadership and managerial experience that are more than capable of running state and federal governments. Look at Michael Bloomberg for example. Who would you rather having running NYC, Michael Bloomberg or President Obama?

Also, if verbal gaffes were an indication of an individual’s incompetence for higher office, just what exactly is Joe Biden doing as VP?

I respect commentators who’s internal logic is consistent throughout an article and can be applied easily to the world around us. If you’re going to write an opinion piece that cannot be held up to even the simplest analysis (by “gasp” us unqualified gen pop), then maybe you’re the one not qualified for what you’re doing.

I’m not a plumber, but I’ve been able to fix a number of plumbing related issues in our house. Sometimes, politics, like plumbing, really isn’t that hard.