of inexperience

I kept reading Jim Fossel’s commentary on experience mattering in government and wondered when he would get to the most glaring example of the dangers caused by inexperience (“In politics, experience should matter,” Dec. 24).

First, he mentions the newbie Barack Obama’s win over Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primaries and then over longtime Sen. John McCain in the general election. Then he gives the example of Paul LePage winning over 20-year insider Libby Mitchell, but couched it in such a way as to make his inexperience in state government sound like a good thing.

But what about the most flagrant example of incompetence of the inexperienced, which has resulted in health care destabilization, major setbacks to climate change mitigation, and threats to world peace? Jim, you missed the most obvious!

Melanie Lanctot

Readfield