RUTHFULLY YOURS

Meghan McCain’s latest commentary ^[1] on the Daily Beast discusses her recent appearance ^[2] on ABC’s This Week, where she claimed that Christine O’Donnell is “making a mockery of running for office” because “she has no real history, no real success in any kind of business.” Meghan also said that morning that the message O’Donnell gives to “[her] generation is: One day you can just wake and run for Senate, no matter how [much of] a lack of experience you have. And it scares me for a lot of reasons.”

Meghan, according to the Constitution, the requirements ^[3] for potential senators are as follows:

No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.

That’s it. You don’t have to be a lawyer, you don’t have to be a businessman, and you don’t have to be a member of the Washington elitist cesspool. O’Donnell is 41 years old; is a citizen of the U.S., having been born and raised here; and has lived in Delaware since 2003. From where I sit, she’s technically qualified.

So yes, Meghan — as long as they meet the few requirements laid out in our Constitution, anyone can wake up one day and decide to run for Senate, regardless of whether you think their “lack of experience” is “scary.”

In fact, I think O’Donnell’s candidacy is an embodiment of the American experience. One does not have to be born into royalty or otherwise be part of the self-anointed elite to want to serve and represent one’s fellow citizens. Any ordinary schlub can run for office, making his case to the electorate, and letting it decide if he is suited for the job — which is what Delawareans will do regarding Christine O’Donnell on November 2.

Heck, anyone running for office should be commended for being brave enough to run the risk of having any skeletons in the closet exposed, either by the opposition or the media. The game of politics is not for the faint of heart.

Poor Meghan’s worried about the “example” that O’Donnell sets for her generation. But what about the example that Meghan sets for her generation?

At the ripe old age of 26, she is a public figure and political pundit who is invited to make regular television appearances to spout off on the issues of the day. What exactly gives Meghan the experience necessary to be the voice of her peers in the political arena? Did Meghan achieve this level of success because she worked her way up the editorial ladder, sending off endless op-ed submissions to various editors and being rejected over and over before she finally caught a break?

No. She was the official blogger for her father’s 2008 political campaign. I wonder how she got that job.

Here’s an interesting question: Can others in “Meghan’s generation” hope to wake up one day and become a famous online and on-air pundit with a book deal, despite the fact that they have no real history and no real success in any kind of business or other professional experience? My guess would be no, unless they have one or both parents who have been involved in government or politics in one way or another for nearly 30 years.

I guess I could say that Meghan McCain scares me because her lack of serious experience makes a mockery of the business of professional opinion and, at age 26, she is running around calling various public figures “hotties ^[4]” and “creeps ^[5]” and whining that they “don’t share ^[6].” When I was 26, I had been married for four years, was the mother of one daughter and was expecting my second, and spent my time potty training, cooking and cleaning, and worrying about making ends meet in a one-income family. I certainly wasn’t publicly ranting about hotties and creeps and whatnot.

And my very small amount of recent success in the op-ed business didn’t come from my knowing people in high places, but by taking a chance and creating content that editors wanted to publish — and being rejected plenty of times in the process.

If Meghan McCain doesn’t like Christine O’Donnell’s ideas, then I wish she’d come out and say so. She’s not afraid to tout her “moderate” credentials — it’s what I believe probably gets her so many television bookings — so why not be honest now? O’Donnell is the Tea Party candidate, after all, and Meghan tells us all she is “not a Tea Partier.”

Meghan, tell us the real reason why you don’t like Christine O’Donnell. I doubt we’ll hear anything that will surprise us, and you’ll still be a media darling, I promise.