Why should we care about who has the most experience? It's irrelevant. There is no apprenticeship that prepares anyone to be a successful president....not even a first term. Look at the messes that Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton made in their second terms. Abraham Lincoln served one term in the House of Representatives, John Kennedy served a few undistinguished years in Congress, but he handled the Cuban missile crisis.with breathtaking skill.

Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld are probably the most experienced people in American History. They both served in Congress and each held several cabinet posts while they spent most of their adult lives in Washington. Would anyone in his/her right mind have wanted either of these guys within 100 miles of the oval office during the Cuban missile crisis?

Maybe we would be better off going back to the old "smoke filled room" days when political pros selected the candidates. Sure, they were crooks and scoundrels, but at least they didn't waste time argueing about BS like experience, religion, and haircuts.

True. Experience alone is not only without value, but leads to entrenchment and being beholden to special interests.

Americans want to go in a bold new direction, so the debate over who's been in Washington longest is foolish... I'd rather see a true outsider run the country for a while. A pre-school teacher from Taos, NM perhaps, or an organic vegetable farmer from Boise, ID... I would be happier to see my local bus driver running the show than Hillary or McCain.

I think that Hillary's focus on experience rings false, and the article does a fine job of exposing that. If you wanna run on your experience, you have to stand on your voting record. Hillary's is kinda spotty, and diverges from her current platform. Whatever you think of Ron Paul, at least he has voted his rhetoric since the 70's without fail.

Experience aside, we should recognize that the president is basically a figurehead. No president even ties their shoes without a team of advisers. This is why a brain-dead actor like Reagan was able to go down as one of our most successful presidents. Perhaps we should be electing people who radiate the image we want to project to the world instead of shrewd deal makers. I think Brad & Angelina would win by a landslide regardless of who was running for office and who was to be the first spouse.

(& who says these candidates weren't picked in "smoke filled rooms," anyway? Most of them have conspicuous ties to think tanks and groups of that nature.)