Terry Cowgill

What Next?

December 28, 2007 on 2:41 pm | In National, Race for Prez |

With the death of Pakistani opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, we are all left wondering what’s next for that troubled country. I must say — and I think I can speak for lots of observers near and far — her assassination came as absolutely no surprise.

In fact, after hearing the news while driving to Manhattan yesterday with my family, I found myself asking what had taken the murderers so long — especially given Bhutto’s legendary disregard for her own safety.

We can only hope that the outcome in Pakistan differs from what happened in Iran in 1979, when the Shah was toppled and was replaced by an Islamic theocracy. At that time, members of the Revolutionary Guard seized the U.S. embassy and held hundreds of Americans captive for 444 days, eventually releasing all of them alive. Sounds almost quaint in comparison to 9/11.

The difference here, of course, is that Pakistan has already acquired nuclear weapons. There are tens of millions of Islamic radicals who hate our guts and would love nothing more than to be rid of the Great Satan once and for all. Since there is little we can do to effect change in Pakistan, we can only pray (literally or figuratively) that bloodshed is kept to a minimum and that a democratically elected government can assume power after achieving some level of legitimacy.

In the absence of information yesterday about Bhutto’s attackers and about Pakistan’s future, the electronic media were mostly left to speculate on the impact the assassination would have on the U.S. presidential race. Who has more experience to deal with crises abroad? Does it help Hillary or Rudy? Does it hurt Obama and Mitt?

The experience issue cuts both ways. In 2000, who had more experience in the White House and in military affairs than Dick Cheney? A former chief of staff to President Ford, former defense secretary and former Haliburton CEO — and look where his strong influence got us.

When elected, Bill Clinton was governor of a small Southern state that was basically run like a Third World Country. In retrospect, most would say he had a successful presidency. Ditto Ronald Reagan, whose military and foreign policy experience consisted of making Hollywood training films during World War II.

And, of course, there was Abe Lincoln, widely considered one of our best presidents. Before assuming the presidency and guiding this nation through the Civil War, Honest Abe’s experience in elected office consisted of one term in Congress.

I heard a great line on Hardball the other night. Jim Warren of the Chicago Tribune was saying that Obama actually had more experience in elected office than Hillary. To which one of the guests said, “You can hardly compare the Illinois State Senate to the U.S. Senate!”

“You’re right,” Warren replied. “They’re not comparable. State legislators work much harder.”

I’ll take Obama over Hillary any day. Ditto, Mitt over Huck or Rudy.