>>Read what I said again. I said his fortitude (which certainly includes courage) is a plus. I do think missing those 5 years is a minus. Is it as large a negative as the fortitude is a positive? Probably not. As for his Congressional service, what I said is that it's not _by itself_ a qualification. It's what you do there. McCain certainly has some positives there, especially his willingness to work across the aisle. (Based on what the folks he served with in the Illinois legislature have to say, Obama has the same plus.)
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>I'm confused - McCain's missing 5 years is a minus, but Obama's lack of experience serving in the Senate is not?

Not sure how you read that into what I wrote. I said that both have shown willingness to work across the aisle, and that's a plus for both. Obama's relative youth is both positive and negative--the plus is that perhaps he won't be too jaded by years of banging his head against the wall, the negative is, of course, fewer experiences since he's had less time to garner. (I'm actually fairly amused that we think of a guy in his mid-40's as young. Obama will be 47 next month. I'm 3 years older. I've accumulated an awful lot of experiences in those 50 years, and find it hard to imagine a situation in which someone would consider me young and inexperienced.)


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>>>Meanwhile, Mr. Hope and Change, with practically ZERO experience in any area needed for a leader captures your imagination.
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>>What invigorates me most about Obama is his obvious intelligence and his apparent willingness to listen to new evidence and change his mind based on it. After the current administration, I consider that an absolute necessity.
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>I'm confused again. With McCain, changing his mind is called 'flip flopping on the issues' but with Obama it demonstrates his apparent willingness to listen to new evidence?'

First, I should say that I found all the accusations of Kerry being a "flip-flopper" in 2004 to be so much nonsense. It was nasty politics at play, combined with Kerry not being particularly good at articulating his ideas for the public.

I haven't heard from McCain the idea that he's incorporated new evidence into his thinking. (I haven't heard anything that nuanced from McCain.) I see turn-arounds on long time stands that seem to be a play to get support from the right.

Acquiring new data and adjusting your plans to deal with it is a good management and leadership skill. It's been sorely lacking in the current administration, with a president who thinks "staying the course" is the right approach, even long after the present course has been shown to get you lost.

I also failed to say that one of the other things I really appreciate about Obama is his willingness to assume that the electorate are not idiots, and that he can say things that take longer than a sound bite. This may come back to bite him. We shall see.

Tamar