Good Judgement
A couple days ago, Scott Adams posted the following:
The December 17th issue of Time had some interesting statistics on voters. When asked the “most important quality” for a candidate, Democrats picked “good judgment” 33% of the time, and Republicans picked it 21%. The other choices were caring about people, leadership, character, and experience.
Does it bother you that good judgment wasn’t the top choice for three-quarters of all voters?
Obviously experience doesn’t help if you have bad judgment. But a person with good judgment would consult with people who have experience. Clearly, judgment is more important than experience.
. . .
Clearly, good judgment should be the most important quality in a president. But how often do you hear someone say that a candidate “has good judgment”?[emp. mine]
What brought that to mind was reading that Ken Burns has thrown his support behind Obama, and at least part of the reasoning behind it:
He also said he appreciated Obama's stand against the war when other candidates supported it.
"I think this is a human being who knew in advance how unnecessary and foolish this war was," Burns said, adding that Obama knows how to distinguish between "fraudulent wars," and "those that really need to be fought."
As a state senator, Obama spoke out against the invasion of Iraq, while Clinton voted for the use of force resolution.
"His record is utterly clear and unassailable on this point," said Burns.
Particularly when matched up against Clinton, Obama has shown better judgement and foresight regarding Iraq before the war and recently regarding Iran, and yet he is attacked for his lack of experience.
Which quality should trump the other?
