New York Post
John Podhoretz
March 9, 2007 -- YOU would think, given the state of play in the world right now, that the next president would have to be an experienced leader, someone who'll be ready on the first day to stare down the mullahs in Iran, the psycho in North Korea and the sectarian murderers in Iraq.
That would seem to suggest Barack Obama's 2008 red-hot candidacy is doomed to burn out as the election draws nearer. Or so the Old Political Hands will tell you.
The Old Political Hands would say this: Maybe Americans think they can take a gamble on a relatively inexperienced president when things seem reasonably calm, as they did in 1992 and 2000 - after the Soviet Union had collapsed and before a terrorist attack killed 3,000 Americans in a single morning. The danger now is simply too profound for Americans to entertain a risky move like electing a Bill Clinton or a George W. Bush - a novice with no foreign-policy record.
But there was a moment at least as dangerous as the one we're in right now when Americans did exactly that. The year was 1976 - and what happened then could be a guidepost to what might happen for Barack Obama. It was the last time a truly blank-slate candidate with an extraordinarily slender record but an eerily perfect biography came roaring out of nowhere to capture the presidency.
The parallels are inexact, but they're there. In 1974, Democrats trounced Republicans in a midterm election in which voter anger over GOP corruption and unhappiness over an unpopular war played an enormous part. In 2006, Democrats trounced Republicans in midterm elections with the same issues in play (though the 2006 Democratic victory was minuscule compared to the colossal Democratic gains in 1974).
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