I'm ready to strangle somebody

Its been several hours since Kerry named Edwards as his running mate, and already I am ready throttle whoever has decided that they need to bash Edwards because he lacks foreign policy experience. I find this argument both intellectually dishonest and politicaly offensive. It intellectually dishonest because the former governor of Texas, and for that matter, Arkansas, California, and Georgia, didn't have foriegn policy experience. To attempt to deflect the question to Dick Cheney's experience, as Laura Ingraham ignore the fact that someone on the Dem ticket, Kerry, does have foriegn policy experience. He's no Dick Cheney, but to expect that you have to gave the foriegn policy experience of a Dick Nixon, a GHWB, or a Dick Cheney to run excludes a heck of a lot of candidates. Which leads me to my second reason for rejecting this argument, I find it politically offensive.

Its part of the American myth that anyone can grow up to be president. (By myth I mean that its a fundamental idea, regardless of its truth value. Obviously very few people will be president, but since men like Lincoln, Nixon, and Clinton rose from obscurity to become president, there is something to the notion that anyone could grow up to be president.) Under the theory of democracy, anyone can hold office. The Athenians really belived this. Most offices in Athens were allocated by lottery. That's a commitment to the capacity of every citizen. The Romans, on the other hand, had an office holding class, the patricians, but eventually allowed the rest of the citizens to decide which patrician would get elected. This theory assumes that some people are better suited to office than others, and the pool of candidates should be limited to some criteria.

As a classicist, I think there is a golden mean between these positons. Nevertheless, I think that anyone who serves a term of a statewide office, such as senator or governor, is eligable for consideration for the presidency. If the people want to consider someone seriously, I think that suggests that he person is qualified. Edwards was a Senator, so I think he's qualified to put himself forward for the highest office. Edwards ran a strong second in the primary, certainly that qualifies him to be veep. If you think he's not qualified, I have two words for you: Abraham Lincoln. Failed businessman, failed politician, some rank him as the top president. Edwards may very well fall short of Lincoln's stature, but the option to give him the chance belongs to the voters.