Obama's Experience vs. Clinton's Experience
News Type: Event — Wed Feb 6, 2008 6:06 PM EST
A lot has been made of Hillary Clinton's experience, it is the theme of her campaign. Knowing a lot about Hillary, but little about what experience she has, I decided I would investigate her experience and compare it to Obama's experience. I got the idea from a comment I saw, I don't remember exactly where, that listed Obama and Clinton's legislative experience.
EXHIBIT 1: LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCE
To begin with let's look at both of their Elected Office experiences. Clinton was first elected to Office in 2000 in the State of New York, a state she had never resided in prior to her run for Senate. Obama was first elected to Office in 1996 in Illinois, a state he had lived and worked in for 7 years. He served in that capacity until 2004 when we was then elected to the US Senate from Illinois.
Right off the bat we can all see that Clinton has 8 years of experience as a legislator, while Obama has 12 years of experience. So Obama has 4 more years of Legislative/Elected Official experience than Clinton.
EXHIBIT 2: PRE-LAW SCHOOL EXPERIENCE
Both have additional work experience. After graduating from Columbia University with a BA in Political Science (emphasis in International Relations), Obama worked for Business International Corporation, as a research associate in the general intenatioanl business information division (NY). He then switched jobs and went to work for the New York Public Interest Research Group, a non-partisan activist organization started by Ralph Nader. Obama then moved to Chicago.
From 1985-1988 Obama worked as a grassroots neighborhood organizer on the South Side of Chicago. He worked primarily with two public housing projects to start college prep programs, job training programs and other community oriented activities.
Hillary Clinton graduated from Wellesley College with a BA in Political Science. During college Hillary participated in the following political activities: President Young Republicans, Interned for House Republican Conference, Assisted Nelson Rockefeller's Campaign, Attended the 1968 Republican National Convention.
Hillary went to Alaska after she graduated. She worked as a dishwasher and salmon canner where she was fired for complaining about working conditions. She then went straight to Law School
EXHIBIT 3: LAW SCHOOL EXPERIENCE
Starting at Yale in the fall of 1969 and graduating in 1973. In law school she: was editor for Yale Review of Law and Social Action; worked for New Haven Legal Services; was awarded a research grant to work on Edleman's Washington Research Project where she was assigned to Walter Mondale in order to research migrant worker problems; Interned at Oakland Law Firm Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein; Campaigned in Texas for McGovern.
Obama then went to Harvard Law School in 1988. While at Harvard Obama received national headlines for becoming the First African-American President of Harvard Law Review. He graduated Magna Cum Laude.
EXHIBIT 4: POST-LAW SCHOOL EXPERIENCE
After earning his JD from Harvard, Obama moved back to Chicago to work on Illinois Project Vote, which resulted in 150k newly registered voters in Cook County (Chicago). In 1993 he went to work for Miner, Barnhill and Galland. At that firm he worked on voter rights and employment litigation, real estate transactions involving not-for-profits and low income and mixed income housing projects. He also served during this time as general counsel for local Health Clinics, Social Service Agencies and Charter Schools.
Also in 1993 Barack became a legal professor at the University of Chicago. He taught constitutional law. He continued to work at the Law School up until the time he was elected to the US Senate.
After earning her JD from Yale, Clinton worked as a member of the impeachment inquiry staff in DC. In 1974 she failed the DC Bar Exam and decided to move to Arkansas where Bill was running for congress. He did not succeed in this campaign. Both of them took jobs with the Arkansas University, Fayetteville Law School. By 1977, Bill had won the Arkansas Attorney General campaign and Hillary had earned a job with the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock. She continued to be involved politically, urging new laws to recognize children's rights, but her law practice focused on Patent Infringement and Intellectual Property law, though she rarely set foot in a court room.
In 1977 Carter appointed Hillary to the board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation, where she served from 1978-1981. This is the first in a series of corporate boards that Hillary has served on. In 1978 She became First Lady of Arkansas. The next year she was made a full partner at Rose Law Firm. From 1982-1992, while First Lady of Arkansas, she chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee. By her final year with Rose Law Firm Hillary was earning over $200k per year.
During this period she also served on two not-for-profit boards as chair of the Children's Defense Fund and as a member of the Arkansas Children's Hospital Legal Services. In addition to these non-profit boards, she also served on a number of Corporate Boards: TCBY (1985-1992); Wal-Mart Stores (1986-1992); Lafarge (1990-1992). Both TCBY and Wal-Mart were clients of Rose Law Firm during her tenure on the boards. She did not try to change Wal-Mart's anti-labor union practices while on the board and was unsuccessful in trying to get more women added to the company's management. During Bill's 1986 reelection campaign her employment with Rose Law Firm came under fire because the Rose Law did business for the state.
In 1993 Hillary became First Lady. She tried unsuccessfully to get health care reform passed (it was never even given a floor vote). She also helped to create the Office of Violence Against Women under the DOJ; helped get sCHIPS passed and initiated the Adoption and Safe Families Act. In 2000 she was elected as a US Senator from NY, a state she had never resided in prior to her campaign.
CONCLUSION
Both candidates have extensive work histories. Obama has never worked for corporate America, except for his time with Business International Corporation, which was later bought by the Economist. The law firm he worked for focused primarily on assisting not-for-profits partnering up with corporations to provide low and mixed income housing in poor communities throughout Chicago.
Most of Obama's work life has focused on helping the poor communities on the South Side of Chicago. He has a history as a grassroots organizer and that is how he was first elected to the Illinois Senate, as a grassroots candidate (along with some challenging names on petitions of his competitors, getting them removed from the ballot). He failed in his run for Congress against Bobby Rush, an entrenched political powerhouse on the South Side of Chicago. Obama ran for elected office for the first time only 5 years after graduating from law school and only 13 years after graduating from College.
Hillary has done a lot of work for children's rights and other pro bono work. She did this work while working for on of the premier law firms in Little Rock, Rose Law Firm. Rose Law Firm focuses primarily on corporate litigation and transactions. She worked primarily on patent infringement and intellectual property litigation, though she did not do much court work. Rose Law Firm is well entrenched in Arkansas' business and political institutions.
She is also credited as being the most politically involved First Lady since Eleanore Roosevelt. Despite this fact, she failed in her effort to pass Health Care Reform in 1994. She contemplated a run for Governor in Arkansas in 1988 but decided against it when polls showed she would fight an uphill battle, so Bill ran again. She then ran for Office for the first time 27 years after graduating from law school and 31 years after graduating from college. She ran in a state she never lived in prior to her establishment of residency in the state in January of 2000.
I wanted to lay out each candidates experiences so that voters can judge for themselves which candidate has BETTER experience.
SOURCES:
OBAMA CV
Clinton Wikipedia Entry
Obama Wikipedia Entry
Rose Law Firm
NYTIMES Article 9/7/200
News Type: Event — Wed Feb 6, 2008 6:06 PM EST
A lot has been made of Hillary Clinton's experience, it is the theme of her campaign. Knowing a lot about Hillary, but little about what experience she has, I decided I would investigate her experience and compare it to Obama's experience. I got the idea from a comment I saw, I don't remember exactly where, that listed Obama and Clinton's legislative experience.
EXHIBIT 1: LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCE
To begin with let's look at both of their Elected Office experiences. Clinton was first elected to Office in 2000 in the State of New York, a state she had never resided in prior to her run for Senate. Obama was first elected to Office in 1996 in Illinois, a state he had lived and worked in for 7 years. He served in that capacity until 2004 when we was then elected to the US Senate from Illinois.
Right off the bat we can all see that Clinton has 8 years of experience as a legislator, while Obama has 12 years of experience. So Obama has 4 more years of Legislative/Elected Official experience than Clinton.
EXHIBIT 2: PRE-LAW SCHOOL EXPERIENCE
Both have additional work experience. After graduating from Columbia University with a BA in Political Science (emphasis in International Relations), Obama worked for Business International Corporation, as a research associate in the general intenatioanl business information division (NY). He then switched jobs and went to work for the New York Public Interest Research Group, a non-partisan activist organization started by Ralph Nader. Obama then moved to Chicago.
From 1985-1988 Obama worked as a grassroots neighborhood organizer on the South Side of Chicago. He worked primarily with two public housing projects to start college prep programs, job training programs and other community oriented activities.
Hillary Clinton graduated from Wellesley College with a BA in Political Science. During college Hillary participated in the following political activities: President Young Republicans, Interned for House Republican Conference, Assisted Nelson Rockefeller's Campaign, Attended the 1968 Republican National Convention.
Hillary went to Alaska after she graduated. She worked as a dishwasher and salmon canner where she was fired for complaining about working conditions. She then went straight to Law School
EXHIBIT 3: LAW SCHOOL EXPERIENCE
Starting at Yale in the fall of 1969 and graduating in 1973. In law school she: was editor for Yale Review of Law and Social Action; worked for New Haven Legal Services; was awarded a research grant to work on Edleman's Washington Research Project where she was assigned to Walter Mondale in order to research migrant worker problems; Interned at Oakland Law Firm Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein; Campaigned in Texas for McGovern.
Obama then went to Harvard Law School in 1988. While at Harvard Obama received national headlines for becoming the First African-American President of Harvard Law Review. He graduated Magna Cum Laude.
EXHIBIT 4: POST-LAW SCHOOL EXPERIENCE
After earning his JD from Harvard, Obama moved back to Chicago to work on Illinois Project Vote, which resulted in 150k newly registered voters in Cook County (Chicago). In 1993 he went to work for Miner, Barnhill and Galland. At that firm he worked on voter rights and employment litigation, real estate transactions involving not-for-profits and low income and mixed income housing projects. He also served during this time as general counsel for local Health Clinics, Social Service Agencies and Charter Schools.
Also in 1993 Barack became a legal professor at the University of Chicago. He taught constitutional law. He continued to work at the Law School up until the time he was elected to the US Senate.
After earning her JD from Yale, Clinton worked as a member of the impeachment inquiry staff in DC. In 1974 she failed the DC Bar Exam and decided to move to Arkansas where Bill was running for congress. He did not succeed in this campaign. Both of them took jobs with the Arkansas University, Fayetteville Law School. By 1977, Bill had won the Arkansas Attorney General campaign and Hillary had earned a job with the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock. She continued to be involved politically, urging new laws to recognize children's rights, but her law practice focused on Patent Infringement and Intellectual Property law, though she rarely set foot in a court room.
In 1977 Carter appointed Hillary to the board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation, where she served from 1978-1981. This is the first in a series of corporate boards that Hillary has served on. In 1978 She became First Lady of Arkansas. The next year she was made a full partner at Rose Law Firm. From 1982-1992, while First Lady of Arkansas, she chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee. By her final year with Rose Law Firm Hillary was earning over $200k per year.
During this period she also served on two not-for-profit boards as chair of the Children's Defense Fund and as a member of the Arkansas Children's Hospital Legal Services. In addition to these non-profit boards, she also served on a number of Corporate Boards: TCBY (1985-1992); Wal-Mart Stores (1986-1992); Lafarge (1990-1992). Both TCBY and Wal-Mart were clients of Rose Law Firm during her tenure on the boards. She did not try to change Wal-Mart's anti-labor union practices while on the board and was unsuccessful in trying to get more women added to the company's management. During Bill's 1986 reelection campaign her employment with Rose Law Firm came under fire because the Rose Law did business for the state.
In 1993 Hillary became First Lady. She tried unsuccessfully to get health care reform passed (it was never even given a floor vote). She also helped to create the Office of Violence Against Women under the DOJ; helped get sCHIPS passed and initiated the Adoption and Safe Families Act. In 2000 she was elected as a US Senator from NY, a state she had never resided in prior to her campaign.
CONCLUSION
Both candidates have extensive work histories. Obama has never worked for corporate America, except for his time with Business International Corporation, which was later bought by the Economist. The law firm he worked for focused primarily on assisting not-for-profits partnering up with corporations to provide low and mixed income housing in poor communities throughout Chicago.
Most of Obama's work life has focused on helping the poor communities on the South Side of Chicago. He has a history as a grassroots organizer and that is how he was first elected to the Illinois Senate, as a grassroots candidate (along with some challenging names on petitions of his competitors, getting them removed from the ballot). He failed in his run for Congress against Bobby Rush, an entrenched political powerhouse on the South Side of Chicago. Obama ran for elected office for the first time only 5 years after graduating from law school and only 13 years after graduating from College.
Hillary has done a lot of work for children's rights and other pro bono work. She did this work while working for on of the premier law firms in Little Rock, Rose Law Firm. Rose Law Firm focuses primarily on corporate litigation and transactions. She worked primarily on patent infringement and intellectual property litigation, though she did not do much court work. Rose Law Firm is well entrenched in Arkansas' business and political institutions.
She is also credited as being the most politically involved First Lady since Eleanore Roosevelt. Despite this fact, she failed in her effort to pass Health Care Reform in 1994. She contemplated a run for Governor in Arkansas in 1988 but decided against it when polls showed she would fight an uphill battle, so Bill ran again. She then ran for Office for the first time 27 years after graduating from law school and 31 years after graduating from college. She ran in a state she never lived in prior to her establishment of residency in the state in January of 2000.
I wanted to lay out each candidates experiences so that voters can judge for themselves which candidate has BETTER experience.
SOURCES:
OBAMA CV
Clinton Wikipedia Entry
Obama Wikipedia Entry
Rose Law Firm
NYTIMES Article 9/7/200