Ezra Klein on Senator Presidents

Ezra Klein's op ed in LA Times is a very interesting read. It talks about the difficulty of dealing with the Senate and Congress and how familiarity with the legislative branch helped LBJ pass such historic legislation as the Civil Rights act, creation of Medicare and Medicaid, food stamps, Head Start and the National Endowment for the Arts.

It is quite an evocative read and very powerful especially in light of the nearly uncontested claim that executive experience is most important for the POTUS. Personally I find the arguement very persuasive especially as I find it stupid to discard experience that is directly related to the position of President. As far as executive experience, the compaign that Obama has been running has been amazing. Given how different it has been from the normal Democratic compaign with its 50 state strategy, reliance on individual donations, spurning of 527s I see very strong executive abilies on display. Obama has vision and the will to bring it into existance.