Steve Benen of The Carpetbagger Report has joined me in questioning the conventional wisdom that Obama is less experienced than Hillary:

And one last word about experience. Clearly, in his third year in the U.S. Senate, Obama enters the presidential race with the least federal experience among the leading Democrats. But I have a hunch this isn’t going to hold up as a credible knock on Obama’s candidacy, and here’s why:

Years in elected office:

* Obama: 10 years (7 state Senate, 3 U.S. Senate)
* Clinton: 8 years (8 U.S. Senate)
* Edwards: 6 years (6 U.S. Senate)
* Giuliani: 8 years (two, four-year mayoral terms)
* Romney: 4 years (one four-year gubernatorial term)
* McCain: 25 years (4 U.S. House, 21 U.S. Senate)

In this respect, Obama’s background doesn’t look that thin, does it?

Nope, it sure doesn’t. (Note that some of Benen’s numbers are wrong; Obama has been in the US Senate for two years and Hillary for six.)

Correction 2/11 3:28 PM: As pointed out in comments below, this post originally said Obama had served for four years in the Senate, not two.