As we turn to the general election, many Republican political theorists have been encouraging John McCain to focus on his message of “experience” to draw in recently estranged Clintonites. However, McCain will have to be careful to frame his experience in just the right light.

Randy Schultz pointed out Sunday, “Hillary Clinton, misreading the national mood and inflating her record, ran on experience when the country wants change, which Barack Obama is selling.” McCain, with years of campaign experience, hasn’t missed this. Reframing his candidacy around the message of change as well, McCain claimed last week that Obama would bring the “wrong change.”

McCain will have to tread lightly the question of his opponent’s experience. McCain may have military experience, but Obama can surround himself with people of the same caliber. Obama is also not without a legitimate claim to political experience: If the focus centers on experience in terms of ability to lead, McCain won’t gain much ground on Obama, despite his youth. Democratic pollster Mark Mellman commented: “Obama’s ability to lead and inspire was central to his victory, against formidable odds, demonstrating that strength few others ever have.”

New York Times columnist David Brooks argues McCain still has a significant case for experience, but experience of a different kind — the kind more aptly called wisdom.

Brooks writes that politicians today are seemingly elected for their virtues, but defined while in office for vices—Clinton’s narcissim, Bush’s intellectual insecurity—they’ve never had to face: “It would be nice to have a president who had gone to school on his own failings. It would be comforting to see a president who’d looked into the abyss, or suffered some sort of ordeal that put him on a first-name basis with his own gravest weaknesses, and who had found ways to combat them.”

Such a presidential candidate would almost certainly not be young, nor have the cleanest record. To be fair, Obama is not without a history of struggle. The “skinny boy with a funny name” has documented this fully in Audacity of Hope and Dreams of My Father. But McCain, known for anger issues and a history of breaking with his party, has dealt with many of his political demons and come out on top of the GOP.

In the end, Brooks suggests a maxim for the voters come November: “Don’t look to see which candidate has the most talent. Look for the one most emotionally gripped by his own failings.” After all, honesty and transparency set statesmen far apart from politicians.