Lincoln was inexperienced too.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: TILTING at windmills - Barack Obama - Brief article

Barack Obama's announcement of his presidential candidacy in Springfield seemed largely successful, with an impressive crowd braving the nine-degree weather. But I know there was one lesson that he wanted drawn from the day that too many reporters ignored. It was that he would come to the presidency with experience in government identical to Lincoln's: two years in Washington and eight years in the state legislature.

Most observers dismiss state legislature experience as irrelevant to Washington. Having been a state legislator, I know they're wrong. The work of creating and analyzing bills followed by negotiations, persuasion, and compromise is the same. And important issues are involved in every session. Among those dealt with by Obama were tax credits for the working poor, welfare reform, early childhood education, and campaign finance reform.

On capital punishment, he took a stand that departed from conventional liberalism but displayed both courage and thoughtfulness. He does not believe that the...