Does Experience = Staleness?

They always say if you want to be this or that, you have to start at the bottom and work your way up for about 10-15 years. Supposedly this makes you better off for whatever job you're trying to do. But could it be, that the old dinosaurs at the top who waited their turn, became stale in the process? Did they lose their creative spark and driving motivation to get things done as they sat around and learned the process?

Obama may think so. That's why "He was running for president even as he was still getting lost in the Capitol’s corridors," according to this article. But who really needs to know where all the corridors are in the first place? Because the only thing waiting around in those corridors are potential enemies.

Though maybe more time in Senate would help prevent time wasted as President learning on the job as he goes, also maybe prevent lives lost and so on, but who really knows? What if he were just do a term of VP and then run for President? Would that make everyone happy saying he's inexperienced?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/us/politics/09obama.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&ref=politics