“That in terms of actual governance, as opposed to the mix of issue-studying and campaigning that Obama’s been immersed in, Palin’s resume and Obama’s aren’t wildly dissimilar. She ran her first race in 1992; he ran his first race in 1997. She was a city councilor for four years, then a mayor, lost a race for statewide office in 2002 then won the governorship in 2006. He was a state senator from Chicago for seven years, lost a House race in 2000, and then won the Illinois Senate race in 2004. The argument for her having more experience, then, would be relatively simple: She’s been in government five years longer than Obama, and has twelve years of executive experience to his zero.” — Ross Douthat, blogging in The Atlantic
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It’s very strange that both parties are arguing:
a) Our candidates have been in government longer than the other party’s.
and
b) The folks who are in government stink, we need change.
It made sense when Obama was arguing that he was a fresh new face who could change the Washington establishment, and it made sense when McCain argued that he was an experienced leader that was qualified to run the country. But now McCain is running around trying to steal the “reform” and “change” labels, and Obama picked “experience” as a running mate.
Weird.
Governor Palin is now the new standard for change in American politics. She is not an elitist, as Obama is. She is more in step with the common working people, as Obama isn,t. She is experienced in actual governmental administrative duties, Obama is not. She is not arrogant and self centered, Obama is. The list of her qualities over Obamas were very well demonstrated to those lucky people that heard her speech.
Watch the polls so you don’t miss the McCain/Palin bounce which will be followed by the election of our first female VP. No doubt about it, bye-bye Nobama.
CAPCHA alert! There’s no way EYES OF TEXAS is a real person. That’s got to be some kind of automated blog posting software.
OK, I just realized that EYES OF TEXAS posted something before, and is probably not a joke, or some kind of blog-spam.
I’m sorry if I offended you, EYES OF TEXAS. I don’t typically try to insult people (unless they deserve it). My bad.
You bring up the topic of Elitism, yet it was Gov. Palin and Guiliani during the Rep. Convention who mocked Obama for previously being a community servant that is now in contention for the Presidency. In an attempted to disparage Obamas credentials prior to being an elected official they came off looking like the elitist. Senator McCain meanwhile doesn’t even know how many homes he owns around the US, im sure average Americans routinely forget that fact as they go about their daily lives.
She may have more Experience in terms of time. Alaska is 47th in population(0.22% of total US pop), by contrast the city of Los Angeles has 3.1 million more people to govern. Differences between governing a state and governing a city may be significant, but the margin between how many people Palin governs is too vast to ignore. Her serious lack of Foreign experience is much more frightening in a world in which the US is becoming more and more embroiled in global conflicts.
The lucky people who heard her speech have learned very few new things about Gov. Palin it was recycled information we have heard since she was first announced as McCain’s VP. Recently one McCain representative was noted saying that they weren’t going to win because of the issues they would win because of character, based on Palins speech that is their strategy.
I believe her speech only showed us that the Bush speech writers are very good at showcasing her character, and that shes much more comfortable reading from a teleprompter than McCain is.
ReneB- you still failed to point out what’s Obama’s experience. The only executive experience I’ve heard Obama speak of is his running of his presidential campaign. While it has been well run, running a campaign (which is full of volunteers and temporary workers) is not the same as dealing with government employees. Lets also not forget that Alaska has about 5 times the number of employees than Obama’s campaign.
Let’s also touch on the foreign experience. Obama’s has as much experience on foreign matters as Palin. To me, you should be more frighten about Obama since he’s the one who is running for president.
“She’s much more comfortable reading from a teleprompter than McCain”- while this is certainly true, you should realize that her speech at the convention was at times adlib since there were problems with the teleprompter. What you should be asking yourself is could Obama do the same?
All, this election cycle has been very exciting since Palin was selected. I can’t wait till the debate to see if she is truely as smart as she seems so far.
Israel
The reason Baracks presidential campaign is cited as experience, is because it is a realistic way of viewing how the presidency works. Compiling the correct people, organization and delegating tasks, he’s done a great job of running a political organization. You might contend that many people worked on the campaign and he cannot solely take credit for it, and that’s true for all other systems within our government.
Republicans attack Obama for his lack of Executive experience, yet McCain has similar experience as State Senator and a representative of the House. I’m sure because its “your guy” you can overlook that, you may also want to overlook the fact that recently Gov. Palin told an interviewer she didn’t know what a Vice President does.
Gov Palin has traveled out of country twice, to visit Alaskan reservist troops in Kuwait and to Germany. That’s the extent of her experience. Do you truly believe that is identical to Obama?
Obama serves on the Foreign Relations committee, Homeland security and Governmental Affairs Committee, both shape US policy that ties it with the world. Obama has met actual leaders in other countries in which America has a vested interest in. Don’t forget Obama also has Biden, I don’t believe his experience can be questioned being a step away from the presidency unlike Gov Palin’s and seeing how McCain may be the oldest elected President in US history it is a fact we cant ignore.
Thanks ReneB.
I do have to still disagree with your accessment of Obama’s qualifications. Yes, he might have been on these various committees, however, his close to two years on the road campaigning can’t possibly give him the breath of “experience” you mention. Furthermore, he met these various foreign leaders, but lets face it, these are nothing more than photo shots for media attention. At the end of the day, I find Obama’s foreign experience to be not significantly more than Palin’s. We have to remember, Obama’s is running for President, not Palin. Even if McCain’s is old, he still alive and she will certainly learn much like Ford,Carter,Reagon, 1st Bush, Clinton and 2nd Bush on the job. She’s smart and will definately pick it up.
I also want to touch on McCain executive experience. McCain did serve in the military as an officer. Being an officer, they hold various executive positions. I know that he served as commander of one of the Navy’s largest squadron’s at one time. This gives him the significant advantage over Obama in experience. Even Palin has more executive experience than Obama. Realisticly, I don’t think campaigns are a good measure for experience.
You might be confusing McCains military service with that of his Father and Grandfather, both were Admirals in the Navy, I believe McCain obtained rank of Captain?
Obama also received degree in political science with emphasis on international relations from Columbia University. He served on three of the four committees dealing with Foreign Relations, he was Chairman of the Foreign Relations sub-committee which deals with EU union and specifically with NATO. The trips he took abroad were in pushing the Lugar Obama Act a bipartisan operation with Senator Lugar, it was much more than simple publicity and photo ops.
McCain explained Palins experience in foreign relations simply by stating she was Commander of Alaskan Reserve Guard, and that Alaska is close in proximity to Russia, I just dont see the similarities in experience here.