Experience is a hot topic these days and I’m afraid the Republicans are confusing a lot of undecided voters. For months, they’ve been attacking Barack Obama for not having enough experience to be President of the United States. But then they turn around and nominate for Vice-President an unknown and self-styled “Hockey Mom” whose resume includes Miss Alaska runner-up and TV sportscaster.

What in the name of Dan Quayle is going on here?

The most important thing about experience, of course, is the quality of it. The number of years a person spends in a certain job, or the number of jobs he or she has, isn’t as important as how they’ve used their time — what they’ve learned and how they’ve grown.

Take John McCain, for example. The Republican Presidential nominee has been in the U.S. Senate since 1984. But the fact that he has voted in support of George W. Bush’s tragically flawed policies 90 per cent of the time raises serious questions about the quality of his experience.

The media shouldn’t be making a big deal about experience, one way or another, because, like most of corporate America, it has devalued experience for the sake of increasing profits.

Look at Gannett and Clear Channel, owners of The Courier-Journal and WHAS Radio, for example. When staffers reach a certain age, they become expendable. The size of their salaries and benefits cease to be cost-effective. So they’re fired or given buyouts so their bosses can hire eager youngsters for far less money.

I recall a conversation with a well-known WHAS personality. He told me that he hoped he didn’t get too big a raise “because I don’t want to get into that salary bracket where Clear Channel starts looking for ways to get rid of you.”

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Like talent and quality, experience doesn’t count for nearly as much as it used to. All that matters is filling the pages or the airwaves, the cheaper the better – especially since so many readers and viewers are turning to the internet as their primary information source.

Here’s another thing about experience: It has long been used – still is, for that matter – to deny jobs to minorities. Here I think of my friend Sherman Lewis, the former great running back at Manual High and Michigan State.

Sherman went into coaching and got all his tickets punched. He worked his way up the coaching ladder, reaching the point where he was a valuable assistant on several Super Bowl teams.

But whenever Sherman applied for a head job, he always was rejected for the same reason: No head coaching experience. To me, that became the code phrase for “African-Americans need not apply.”

How do you get experience unless somebody’s willing to give you the opportunity to learn on the job? I can’t think of any leaders who were born ready-made for a job. Everybody has to learn. That’s why teachers, mentors, and role models are so important.

A footnote from personal experience: I was 31 when I was named to succeed the late Joe Creason as the C-J’s general columnist in 1974. Everybody knew it would be impossible to replace Joe, whose ability to spin yarns and collect anecdotes had made him a statewide icon.

Some of the editors felt the job should go to a veteran writer, somebody whose byline had become synonymous with the C-J around the state. They argued that I was too young and, yes, inexperienced.

But managing editor Carol Sutton, bless her heart, took a chance on me. It’s not for me to say whether or not I succeeded. All I know is that I worked incredibly hard to reward Carol’s faith in me. I didn’t have experience, but I had energy. Lots of it.

Another thing about the old C-J was this: The experience of going to journalism school was virtually meaningless. Editors such as Norman Isaacs and George Gill figured that most journalism schools were so bad that they preferred to hire, say, an English major or political-science major who could be taught journalism on the job.

It’s sort of the same with golf. We all know people who have been playing a long time but never get any better. Generally that’s because they didn’t take lessons when they first took up the game and, therefore, developed bad habits that stayed with them for life. To repeat, experience is meaningless if you don’t learn from it and get better.

In analyzing football and basketball teams, I pay some attention to experience. But not a lot. Talent trumps experience almost every time. It makes no difference how many returning lettermen a team has if they’ve been playing for a bad coach in a bad program.

It’s the same in politics. Look at Mitch McConnell. He has used his many years in the U.S. Senate to learn how to manipulate the system, how to use earmarks and go to the pork barrel, and how to obstruct legislation that doesn’t jibe with his far-right philosophy. He has supported George W. so consistently that they’re joined at the hip. If you believe George must go – as surely you must – then Mitch must go, too.

Experience also must give way to prodigies — or, as they’re known in the sports world, “phenoms.” These are young people who are way ahead of the curve. They possess a God-given level of talent or intellect or aptitude that puts them in a different category from the rest of us.

Prodigies are most obvious in the sports and entertainment worlds. We think of the pianist Van Cliburn, the baseball player Mickey Mantle, and the chess master Bobby Fischer. Or Steve Cauthen, who was the best jockey in America when he was 18.

But prodigies also come along ever so often in politics.

I believe Barack Obama is one of them.

Even as a callow state senator from Illinois, Obama recognized the Iraq war for what the misbegotten disaster it turned out to be and had the moral courage to say so. Sound judgment and the courage of one’s conviction trumps experience in my book. Obama has proven to have wisdom beyond his years. Beyond that, he is blessed with the rare ability to articulate his vision, both in words and writing, in a powerful and meaningful way.

I wouldn’t be nearly as concerned with Sarah Palin’s gross lack of experience if I felt she were an exceptional person. But she isn’t. To the contrary, she seems to take great pride in being “regular” or “ordinary.” This is good if the only alternative is “bad” or “incompetent,” which is what we’ve had for the last eight years. But if the alternative is “superior,” then, sorry, “regular” just doesn’t cut it.

So can we agree to consider quality of experience, not quantity? Quantity means longevity. But quality means how you’ve dealt with large and complex social, economic, legal, moral, ethical and political problems. By that standard, I’d say that one month as a U.S. Senator from Illinois translates to, oh, 50 years as Governor of Alaska.

Tacitly acknowledging the concerns about his experience, Obama did the smart thing and picked Joe Biden to be his runningmate. Biden, a Roman Catholic and respected Senate leader, brings great balance to the ticket. On the other hand, ignoring concerns about his age and health, McCain picked the pin-up girl for the ultra-right-wing agenda. If that’s the best he can do after all those years in public office, then his experience doesn’t mean much.

Like President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Obama has the innate ability to inspire. This has little to do with experience. King was 39 when he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. He had no formal experience in politics, yet he did more than anyone to influence the politics of racism in the 1960s.

Back in my traveling days, I fretted everytime I got on a plane that had a young pilot. But one day a friend pointed out that the best pilots in the world – those who fly fighter jets in our military – are young people who have earned the right to fly through a combination of God-given and learned abilities.

“If your plane is going down,” my friend said, “don’t you want the pilot to have quick reflexes and clear judgment? I’ll take a young pilot over an old one any day.”

In this election, I’ll take the young pilot, thanks.