New Fox News Op-ed: Politicians as Experts

My new Fox News piece starts off like this:

Politicians pose as the ultimate experts. They may never have worked in an industry or studied an issue before, but after few months of time on a topic they know everything: the types of cars that should be produced, the science of global warming, and how much doctors should charge for different types of surgery.

Few in congress even have backgrounds that are closely related to some of the issues covered by government. Just take the Senate this year, where almost half, 45, are attorneys. Only one doctor, four farmers, 13 business people, seven teachers, four professors (all law and three are listed as just adjuncts), and virtually everyone else lists their past experience as professional politician. No members of the Senate are scientists or economists. One member of the Senate played professional sports and another owned a professional sports team.

A president and members of Congress deal with thousands of complicated topics each year. But is there anything politicians consider anything off limits?

Apparently not. Take President-elect Barack Obama’s foray last week into how college football should be run. Obama told CBS’s 60 Minutes:

"I think any sensible person would say that, if you've got a bunch of teams who play throughout the season and many of them have one loss or two losses, there's no clear, decisive winner, that we should be creating a playoff system. Eight teams, that would be three rounds to determine a national champion. It would -- it would add three extra weeks to the season. You could trim back on the regular season. I don't know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this. So I'm going to throw my weight around a little bit. I think it's the right thing to do."
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abudzar