Looking forward without looking backwards?

In the Vice-President debate Gov. Palin said “we that the McCain-Palin Administration would look forward to the future and not backwards to the past”. Now how can you going forward without knowing where you came from when you go to the food store it is because you know it had good food in the past, but you are buying for the future. When you are hiring someone you want to hire you look into their past to know how they will perform in the future.