Is 8 years as a state senator not adequate "experience"?

[Stranger in a strange land]

If your state legislature is anything like ours, serving 8 years in it should possibly be a disqualifer for higher office.

fortunately or unfortunately, the Texas legislature is routinely ranked as one of the worst in the nation.

Also, Obama was president of  the Harvard Law Review, and if that's not good experience I don't know what is.

[Stranger in a strange land]

OK, anything that has dramatically changed things?

Why ask this question? How has Hillary, Edwards, Guiliani, Romney, Huckabee, any of them 'dramatically changed things'? You're holding Obama up to a higher standard for no reason at all.

With the exception of McCain, none of them. I'm holding Obama to exactly the same standards I'm holding everyone else.

While we're on McCain, how did he get captured in Vietnam?

He was a navy pilot and was shot down by North Vietnamese air defenses during an air raid.