A broken clock is right twice a day

Sunday, September 28, 2008 by Dave Winer.

First a disclaimer. Andrew Keen's book is a piece of trash, he says things that enflame people just to enflame them, I don't want to do anything to encourage him. 

That said... 

He was on a Gillmor Gang last week discussing Sarah Palin with Steve and Michael Markman, and he said something profoundly correct, and surprisingly validates his theory about the Cult of the Amateur. 

Sarah Palin is the ultimate expression of the lunacy of the belief, that I don't share, that amateurs should replace professionals in every walk of life. That's the false premise of Keen's book, that anyone is advocating this, but clearly the Republicans do actually believe that being President is something that any schnook can, and should do. It's so obviously not true, incredibly dangerous thinking, so dangerous it borders on treason.  

It's provably ridiculous. 

Would you get on a plane if you knew the person flying the plane had never flown one before? 

Would you let a surgeon operate on you if you knew he or she hadn't been to medical school? 

Do you think that operating the US government, and the military, is less complex and specialized as flying a plane or operating on a human being? 

And before you say that Obama doesn't have the experience either, don't insult your own intelligence. No one has experience being President when they take the job for the first time. Not McCain, not Roosevelt or Reagan or Bush.  

I read a piece this morning by Fareed Zakaria who said Palin was unqualified. That's overly polite. That someone like her can get as far as she has reveals a serious flaw in our form of government.  

Update: Andrew Keen responds.