As of late, it’s been hard to peruse the talk radio and blog punditry for too long without running into this fun exercise. The rationale? Probably a few things, actually. One, it turns the focus of the political debate to Obama’s perceived inexperience and lack of substance in his speeches. Two, publicly belittling and marginalizing his supporters might result in second-guessing for those watching at home. Three, all this may be viewed as the only defense against Obama’s charisma, energy, and the social movement forming around him.
As for the major players, you’ll find the usual suspects, but no one enjoys this game more than Sean Hannity:
The fallacy with this game is that you can play it with just about any candidate out there. Ask your average McCain supporter on the street to name an accomplishment, and you’d probably get a response that had something to do with his status as a war hero, if anything. What about Huckabee? Clinton?
It certainly doesn’t mean that people are stupid, but rather that the focus of debates and campaign speeches tends to center around ideas on current issues and policies. Congressional voting records usually get a secondary look and are sometimes misleading, but even sponsoring legislation doesn’t come to most people’s minds when one is forced to think of an “accomplishment”. Nor would the usual “fought for” or “stood alongside” rhetoric found in your typical political campaign ad. Very rarely do you see candidate with a specific accomplishment that uniquely qualifies an individual to take on the U.S. presidency anyway. And I’ve long argued that the people who do have the resume for the office are the people who don’t want the job.
In all likelihood, the “name an accomplishment” test would have been failed by average Americans on all sides for the last 100 years.
But it sure is fun! And I’d expect to see a lot more of it as Obama gets closer to winning the nomination.
(for a little more fun, and in the spirit of the debate over relevant accomplishments that make a good president, take a look at the FACTS ABOUT GEORGE DUBYA BUSH THAT YOU MIGHT BE UNAWARE OF….. TAKEN FROM HIS RESUME )
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