Judging Hillary's Experience

[xmas74]

WASHINGTON -- The thematic backdrop of the Democratic nomination contest thus far is the triumph of hope over experience. It has carried Barack Obama, a freshman senator whose principal experience in public office has been as an Illinois state legislator, to a down-to-the-wire matchup with Hillary Clinton, whose experience includes eight years as first lady and seven years in the Senate.

The mismatched resumes seem to have had little bearing on Democratic primary voters, who turn out by the thousands for Obama rallies and have helped propel him to gaping margins of victory in caucuses and more significantly, in last week's Virginia and Maryland primaries. Obama’s campaign relishes what it believes will be a fall contest against 71-year-old Republican John McCain, a veteran senator tied to President Bush’s misguided polices at home and abroad.

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The Obama arc in the Democratic primaries is familiar to those who have studied previous contests involving women candidates who’ve run for governor. Voters routinely discount a woman candidate’s experience when they are matched against men, demanding very specific information about her record of fiscal management, crisis response, and political acumen compared with male candidates in the same contests. "Voters need more information to conclude that a woman is prepared to be governor than they need to draw the same conclusion about a man," according to research done in 2001 by the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, which promotes women’s political leadership. "Men were assumed to be qualified to lead their state if they had a resume that simply listed positions of leadership and service."

read further at:
http://postwritersgroup.com/archives/cocc080219.htm

I normally don't post articles but just finished reading this in my local newspaper and thought it was worth mentioning. It states a report about women governors and how their experience is treated, compared to a male with the same amount or lesser experience in the same race.