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When a senator sponsor a bill, he originates the concept, surveys the landscape for support or lack thereof, identifies targets for persuasion, and works for bipartisan consensus. This would involve extensive research on the content of the bill, assessment of benefits versus cost, knowledge of past voting records of constituents and fashioning persuasive arguments using pros and cons, according to who his individual target is and where he or she is coming from. He determines constitutionality, legality and any possible conflict of interests. He authors the bill. He introduces the bill, debates the bill in the chambers, takes and answers criticism, compromises, rewrites and so forth until passage is achieved. He then turns around and goes through much the same process to promote the bill in the house. Then he holds his breath and hopes the president from his opposition party does not wipe out all his hard work with the stroke of a veto pen. When he cosponsors a bill, he does much the same thing with a partner or partners.
The accomplishments I listed under the state experience section actually were Obama's initiatives. The US senate list does not just reflect legislation. It also demonstrates varied committee membership, which reflects a completely different type of experience, much along the lines of study groups and research focused on strategy building of national and internation consequence.
Two final observations. Every single item listed under O's experience indicates the issues he takes most seriously and aligns consistently with the platform he now proposes on a national level in the presidential campaign. Thus, this addresses the trust issue so often raised by his detractors. O obviously has been a quick study, or he would not have been able to successfully seize the nomination of his party.
I do not understand how SP's so-called executive experiences trumps this record. In fact, my question would be where then DID she get her consensus-building experience from if she was so totally in charge of people she expected to simply fall in line. Lastly, I am still wondering exactly how SP's record is comparable in this regard...or in words of one syllable...how does she stack up? |
