I don’t have time to respond to all the critical emails I received on my Examiner news analysis today arguing that Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, in different ways, showed that they were in different ways unprepared to answer questions in debates and from reporters. Most of the critics were angry that I did not mention that Barack Obama was unprepared to be president in 2008.
My response: Folks, I had 450 words. I was writing in the midst of a heated campaign for the Republican presidential nomination and about the three candidates who believe they have a serious chance to win the nomination. (Ron Paul doesn’t think so, and Rick Perry showed by his withdrawal this morning that he didn’t think so either.) I have written before and often, though not always, critically about Obama, and there will be plenty of time and space to do so again. It’s important that the Republican candidates undergo critical examination, including and perhaps especially from those who would like to see the Republican nominee win in November, before the race for the nomination is concluded. Not every such examination needs to include critical comment about Obama.
And one more thing: the argument that Obama was unprepared in 2008 has passed its sell-by date. He currently has more experience being president than any of the Republican candidates. They have been arguing, and many Americans agree, that he is not doing a good job as president: a legitimate argument, agree or disagree. But if you keep emphasizing that Obama was not prepared in 2008, you are asking some significant number of Americans whose support you seek to admit that they were wrong then. People don’t like to admit they were wrong. It’s more persuasive to make the case for 2012 rather than to relitigate 2008.
