Washington--Back in 2008, a freshman senator named Barack Obama got savaged for his inexperience.
As Republicans prepare their 2016 presidential races, political messaging has flip-flopped as they face the most seasoned woman in American politics.
Hillary Clinton's decades-deep curriculum vitae -- US first lady, senator, secretary of state -- contrasts dramatically with three first-term Senate Republicans who have launched White House campaigns but have little national record to stand on.
Obama survived a bruising party nomination battle with the more experienced Clinton to become the first sitting senator to win the White House in more than half a century, when voters embraced a young, fresh-faced politician peddling a message of hope and change over veteran Senator John McCain.
With Senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio borrowing a page out of Obama's playbook, some Republicans who once hailed candidate McCain for his vast knowledge and experience are casting some 2016'ers as ambitious outsiders who could win the White House without Washington baggage.
"I think politics has changed a lot," said Senator Richard Shelby, one of several lawmakers who discussed the 2016 landscape with AFP.
"For the presidency, experience probably was never that valuable," Shelby said. "People get tired of you."
Even McCain, who once called Obama "naive" given his mere two years in the Senate before announcing his presidential bid, recognized that voters could well embrace green-behind-the-ears candidates Cruz, Paul and Rubio.
AFP
