What's more important to you in a presidential candidate, experience or integrity?

Question

I personally value integrity over experience because we've seen guys like Cheney and Rumsfeld with decades of experience make a TOTAL mess of things in the past 8 years. Experience really is meaningless without integrity and honor. Which is why I can't bring myself to support Hillary. She supported the war and the Patriot Act all the way until 2005 and only changed her tune when they were no longer popular. She has consistently put her political ambition ahead of the country's best interests and to me, that's despicable. As we've seen with the Bush administration, no amount of experience will make up for a lack of integrity and the same applies to Hillary. Besides, I don't think being a First Lady for 8 years really counts as experience. I'm voting for Obama who I think truly has the country's best interests at heart. What do you think?

Answer 1

To me, far more important is the candidate's platform. I want to know what he or she will do for this country.

I think Barack is a good man, by the way, but he's a liberal. That precludes me from voting for him. Hillary? No chance.

Vote for Rudy!

Answer 2

To be a Governor or a CEO is being in charge of a certain # of people, not an entire nation. There is no one with the experience of being President running in this election. No one can be experienced unless they are running for a 2nd term. Being First Lady does not give Hillary experience as a President, only at glad handing visiting dignitaries & serving tea!
Since no one running has experience in the Oval Office, I would have to vote for integerity. Every 1st time President has had to learn on the job, what else is new in our political game of elect a President, nothing! There are some very intelligent people running for this, the highest office in the land, they are all capable of learning quickly. They are all up on current world events, they know the will of the people, some disregard it but, they all know it!
I'm not a racist but, I will not waste my vote on Obama, he cannot win a national election. Some on here say that we, as a nation, are past racism, if you really believe that, you live a very sheltered life & really don't know your fellow white Americans very well! They say one thing but, in the voting booth or at the voting machine, what are they really going to do, we can only guess! My guess is that they won't vote for a black, no matter what they say in public! I'm not saying that he is not qualified, I'm not saying that he is not capable of doing the job of President. I'm saying that he won't be given the chance!

Answer 3

Experience or Integrity? Obviously, integrity comes first, and hopefully, the American voters will not be so stupid as to elect someone with little experience, such as Barack Hussein Obama,Jr. who has hugh problems re experience, and his integrity is highly questionable, based on the fact that he has received millions of dollars from lobbyists, and claims to be against lobbying! Also, Obama's most disgraceful act was dishonoring the American flag during the rendition of the nation anthem. Source: Time, Octiber 01, 2007 edition, newsbusters,org.........Barack Hussein Obama has missed over 165 votes ( 37.6% ) in the current congress, the worst voting record of the Democrats. SOURCE: Washingtonpost.com........Also, Obama has the least experience of all the candidates and would be inadequate re foreign policy.

Answer 4

Jimmy Carter had all the integrity in the world but I and millions of Americans waited in gas lines because he was an idiot. If you think Bush is dumb you certainly don't remember Jimma Carter and brother Billy. I wouldn't trust Obama any further than the other elites. Obama will be in debt to the Black Congressional Caucus all day and night and that is just a fact. He also has a very bad reputation because of his close support of his minister who is extremely racist. Those are just simple facts of the matter. I don't know who to vote for. Politicians care about the power they achieve not some goody goody notion of protecting the people.

Answer 5

I don't know. It is difficult to qualitatively assess the significance of one without the other.

For instance, we have had great presidents with little political experience (such as Andrew Jackson); we have had great presidents with no integrity (Nixon and Clinton). Then we have had bad presidents who have both experience and integrity (Bush). It is not a one size fits all scenario. Integrity and experience are not good indicators of how successful a president will be.

Ultimately, I value personal character, intelligence, and the candidate's stances on issues above all else. Integrity and experience are at the bottom of my list.

I am seeing some ignorant responses above me.
Obama did not vote for the Iraq War. He wasn't even in the US Senate at the time lol. In fact, he was one of the few vocal critics of the Iraq War and has always opposed Bush on this.

Obama has stated that he cannot promise to withdraw all of our troops by 2013 because he is committed to withdrawing our troops in a safe and orderly manner. Can you imagine how disastrous it would be for the middle east if all of our troops got sent home in one day? Obama has a comprehensive plan aimed at slowly withdrawing our troops from Iraq while establishing time frames for the developing Iraqi government to get certain things done.

What is so bad about taking money from lobbyists? If you don't have a background in political science or us government, you have no right to comment on lobbying. If you knew anything about lobbies and campaign finance law, you would know that legally lobbies can only donate up to 5000 dollars for any single candidate, even though it takes 70 million dollars or so to run for president. Politicians have to take money where they can in order for it to add up. Stupid conspirators out there are deceiving the American public into thinking that lobbies are buying our government when they are not. So many competing and different lobbies donate to the same candidates that they pretty much cancel each other out. Interest groups, as lobbies are formally known, are experts in their field and provide valuable, nonbiased information to our congressman when it comes time to vote for a bill. How can you expect our congressmen to make an informed and wise decision if he or she knows nothing about a bill? That's where lobbies come in and tell them the facts surrounding the bill. Lobbies are a vital part of our American institution that represent the diverse interests of different areas of our society. They are not bad like everyone paints them out to be.

Answer 6

Integrity

Answer 7

President of the United States and, there-by, leader of the Free World is not a entry level position. One does not get a break-in period. The President is President from the moment he is inaugurated. ANYTHING can happen immediately after that that require the President to make immediate and world changing decisions. We need people with real experience. By real leadership I mean experience running a major company, or governing a State or at least a Mayor of a major city. This is why Congressmen and Senators are rarely elected President and if they are they are usually tossed out after one term.

If you are a Democrat the only suitable candidate is Bill Richardson but he is not getting much attention. On the Republican side, Romney was a CEO and a Governor, Giuliani was Mayor of New York City as well as an Attorney General. Huckabee is a governor, McCain a military officer.

Happy New Year!

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Answer 8

Integrity

Answer 9

in the modern-day previous in easy terms 2 presidential elections look to have won any substantial effect from vice president nominations. In 1960, John F. Kennedy could desire to no longer be elected devoid of the electoral votes of Texas and various different southern states. His decision of Lyndon Johnson made a brilliant difference. This became an awfully close election. In 1992 the assessment between vice president Dan Quayle and vice president-nominee Al Gore became plenty greater stark than the assessment between George H.W. Bush and invoice Clinton. yet another fairly close election, in all probability desperate with the help of the Perot factor blended with the vice president decision.

Answer 10

Integrity. What good is experience if you don't have integrity?

John W-Obama wasn't even in the Senate yet when the Iraq War was voted on, so how in the name of God can you say he voted for the Iraq War. You just made that up, didn't you?

Edit: Sanchella D-Now that the troops are there do you expect Congress to cut off the funding? What? You want them to starve to death and not have ammunition to protect themselves? Congress is now voting to try and keep the American troops there alive. How would you vote? What if it was your brother there? You'd be praying for that funding.

Answer 11

I am not voting for either, but to answer your question, I believe both experience and integrity are equally as important. How could you believe in a leader who is dishonest and not loyal? How could you believe in a leader who has a lack of experience and knowledge in what he is doing?