Will Obama's Lack of Experinece Hurt Him Amongst Voters for His Presidential Bid?

The recent death of former prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto means that national security, foreign policy and terrorism are back in the forefront of politics and American politicians campaigning for the presidency wasted little time in seizing upon her death to talk about their foreign policy strengths. Most notably, Senator Hillary spoke about her relationship with Bhutto and how as the First Lady, she developed foreign policy experience in issues relating to Pakistan and other world regions. Barack Obama, on the other hand is a first term Senator from Illinois who cannot claim such experience. Instead he is trying to attack Clinton's credentials. So the question becomes, will Obama's lack of foreign policy experience hurt him the election?

The first area that needs to be evaluated is how much more the death of Bhutto will impact the presidential election. According to CNN analysts, Bhutto's death will bring foreign policy to the forefront issue instead of having domestic issues like the economy lead conversations. This bodes well for candidates Clinton, Giuliani, McCain, and Richardson, all of whom are strong on foreign policy issues and terrorism. Polls indicate that Bhutto's death will lead to about a 5% surge for candidates with foreign policy experience. This may not seem like much but in a close election such as this, Clinton definitely benefits from Bhutto's death.

Bhutto's death has caused rioting and chaos in the streets of Pakistan which greatly affects American interests. The Stock Market went down the day of Bhutto's death and foreign policy experts are worried about a deteriorated American-Pakistan relationship.