The False Dichotomy Between Experience and Change

It takes experience to make change happen.

A lesson I’ve learned repeatedly over the years is that whenever a dichotomy arises, it almost always turns out to be false. Maybe that’s why I appreciate the recent conclusion reached by the Christian Science Monitor that the overall lesson learned in New Hampshire is that voters reject the dichotomy between change vs. experience, and value both.

But before reaching that conclusion, the Monitor noted:

“The candidate of "experience," Hillary Clinton, found the campaign experience had more to teach her. The candidate of "change," Barack Obama, felt a gust of change as runner-up. They now head to new contests, made wiser by voters who defied Iowa's results and the polls.”

I would add that in the run-up to New Hampshire, Clinton had said repeatedly that it takes experience to make change happen.

The Monitor also pointed out that “On the GOP side, too, New Hampshire's campaign and results seemed to humble the leading candidates, leaving the remaining primaries refreshingly still up for grabs in both parties.”

The lesson for the media in New Hampshire, the Monitor suggested, is to hereafter restrain the impulse to celebrate a victor and trounce a loser on the basis of poll numbers – at least have the grace to wait until the votes have been counted.