For Pilots and Politicians, Experience Matters

By A. W. Maldonado


When I took off in my first solo flight some 40 years ago, experienced mattered.

I was not afraid that my small Cessna would fail. I was afraid about myself: panic. And I knew that confidence avoided panic, and that confidence is the product of experience.

Paradoxically, as a newspaper reporter, editor and columnist, experience did not matter. I wrote about issues, many of them of importance, some of them complex, in which I had no direct
experience. This, in fact, was a professional asset: it reinforced my credibility: it was
seen as giving me the distance, detachment essential to “objectivitive journalism.”

And through the years, I witnessed the same paradox in the democratic system that gives men and women the power to govern us. In our lives, we normally value experience highly, especially in moments of fear, as in a commercial airplane bouncing around in bad weather, it comforts us to know that the pilots in the cabin are experienced: or as we are wheeled into an operating room, knowing that the surgeons are experienced.

But not in politics. As in journalism, experience is seen as a negative. To be anaccomplice of the mistakes of the past that created the crisis we are in. To be part of the “problem” and not the “solution.”

That Barack Obama had, as the Washington Post put it in a recent editorial, an “experience deficit” added to his great appeal and critically reinforced the perception that he represented “change.” The dynamics of the campaign made the point. As the national anxiety over the Iraq War receded, so did Obama's appeal. When the country fell into the financial and then economic meltdown, the Obama campaign recovered. As national anxiety grew, it turned more to the by far lesser experienced candidate for President.

Now, many argue that was is crucial is the talent, the intelligence of the President and his ability to sorround himself with men and women of exceptional experience. There is no question that Obama has the talent, the intelligence and has attracted an impressive team. And there is the argument that. again, the "experience deficit" may prove an asset making possible the open-mindedness, the flexiblility needed to make decisions and adopt policies, as Obama says often, "that work."

But lets go back to the pilot analogy. In recent weeks two commercial airlines went down. In both cases the pilots hit the moment of potential panic when life-or-death decisions are made instantly. In one, a highly experienced pilot, who happens to be a national expert in flight
safety, made the decision to “go into the Hudson.” It turned out to be the right decision as he executed perfectly and landed on the water.

In the other, according to the latest reports of federal investigators, an inexperienced pilot (qualified to fly this type aircraft in December), appears to have made the wrong decision when the plane stalled on approach in Buffalo.


Obama had great confidence in himself. I can’t conceive anyone running for President without it.
But the fact that he has assembled a team of impressive talent and experience gurantees that he will get different and at times conflicting advice on issues of mind-boggling complexity.
He must decide. How can he possibly know what is the right decision, what "will work." It has surprised no one that in his first weeks in office, facing terribly difficult and complex issues, he has stumbled. If it is true that a good part of the world economic crisis is "psychological," and if the experts are right in that the crisis will be prolonged, as much as the nation and the world want him to succeed, how many more times can Obama stumble before he begins to lose the confidence of the people in him, and of himself?

“Solo” is Spanish for alone. When I flew my first solo, leaving behind my instructors with all their experience back on the ground, I faced the reality that it was totally in my hands: either I landed or I crashed.

With pilots or politicians, experience guarantees nothing. But in moments of crisis, there is no substitute. Experience matters.










































to landing.
Obama had great confidence in himself. I can’t conceive anyone running for President without it.
Yes, he has assembled a team of impressive talent and experience, but this only guarantees that he
will get different, and at times conflicting advise on issues of mind-boggling complexity.
As he must make decisions, who is right, who is wrong, I think he must feel a pilot in his first solo flight.
“Solo” is Spanish for alone.
When I flew in my first solo, leaving behind my instructors with all their experience back on the
ground, I faced a simple reality: either I land this airplane, and I crash.
It is, to say the least, an exhilarating experience. Taking a risk is often exhilarating. American voters
have often elected Presidents with significant “experience deficits.” One cannot know it the man
elected will become another Abraham Lincoln or another Jimmy Carter.
There is no escaping that as exhilarating as Obama’s election is, it is a risk. With pilots or politicians,
experience guarantees nothings. But in moments of crisis, it matters.