Today’s New York Times op-ed page has more proposed debate questions for the candidates from various public figures, including Charles Murray (aka Mr. Bell Curve), who offers this:

You promise to create millions of jobs, but many people who run businesses say that nothing in your life has taught you how much effort, risk and sometimes heartbreak goes into creating one real job. Could you describe your experiences when you last had to meet a payroll, or when your boss had to meet a payroll?

There’s nothing better than people who live off think tank sinecures lecturing politicians on the virtues of the free market. I don’t see any significant private sector experience in Murray’s bio (hence the “many people who run businesses” attribution).

More importantly, what does Kerry’s private sector experience (or lack thereof) really tell us? Murray clearly has very strong beliefs about the market and how it should be regulated even though he hasn’t run a business. Should we dismiss them for that reason? Surely not.

In the end, personal experience is great, but it doesn’t tell us very much about the kind of leadership a candidate would offer. Kerry has more military experience than Bush, but I doubt Murray would support him on that basis. The same applies here. Let’s hope Bob Scheiffer doesn’t follow Murray’s lead tonight.