McBush:
“If they want to go down that route, in all candor, she has far, far more experience than Senator Obama does.”
If we’re in the middle of the Experience Wars then Republicans are hoping to win by shear volume of bluster. Sarah Palin has been the governor of a state with a population of about 680,000 people for less then two years. Before hat she was the mayor of a town, population of 9 thousand. Then the pathetic claim that since Alaska is just across the way from Russia by some twist of geographic magic shrouds her in foreign policy experience. Oh as as governor she headed that state’s National Guard. Thin gruel even for the RNC noise machine. When Barack Obama was a state senator in Illinois his district had a population of approximately 782 thousand thus representing a hundred thousand more people then Palin. If the Right is sincere about Palin’s “executive” experience then she would also have more such experience then Senator McCain. So why isn’t she at the top of the ticket. As a U.S. Senator of Illinois Senator Obama represents about 13 million constituents. Palin has been touted as having more management experience for running a snow mobile and commercial fishing business. Senator Obama besides his expertise in Constitutional law, has run one of, if not the best grass roots organizations in American political history – his volunteers alone number in the hundreds of thousands. Obama has learned from Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign that you can’t be all internet. he has combined the net and hundreds of thousands of on the ground volunteers into a large and effective organization. One that would rival any modern large private sector business. The Machinery of Hope
Over the past year, the Obama campaign has quietly worked to integrate the online technologies that fueled the rise of Howard Dean —as well as social-networking and video tools that didn’t even exist in 2004 — with the kind of neighbor-to-neighbor movement-building that Obama learned as a young organizer on the streets of Chicago. “That’s the magic of what they’ve done,” says Simon Rosenberg, president of the Democratic think tank NDN. “They’ve married the incredibly powerful online community they built with real on-the-ground field operations. We’ve never seen anything like this before in American political history.”
Remember that Obama has already faced a huge political contest and won. Months before the Democratic national Convention Obama was drawing crowds of 20 thousand plus. The entire time mocked – their envy was clearly showing – by right-wing pundits. Organizational and leadership skills? Palin has a long long way to go to catch up with the Senator from the Land of Lincoln. Obama didn’t win every primary. He and his organization didn’t let some short term set backs throw them into panic or despair, Obama team remains unshaken
The GOP has decided to keep to sound bites. The usal stuff, short of facts, long on exaggerations that favor them, sprinkled with the egotistical snide that is the soul mate of Republican politics of living and dying by the smear. GOP cites Palin’s skill, but how relevant is it?
The GOP has also implied that Democratic reactions to Palin’s selection are sexist, particularly since, they contend, her time as Alaska’s governor gives her the edge over Barack Obama in executive experience. Obama, 47, has spent almost 12 years in office, all of it as a lawmaker — eight years as an Illinois state senator and nearly four as a U.S. senator. Palin’s total is 12 — she spent 10 as a city council member and mayor, and nearly two as governor.
The real numbers just don’t add up in Palin’s favor. The only way Palin’s experience is greater then Obama’s is if its selectively strained through the Right’s spin machine. The Democrats have been sexist?,
“The hostess with the moosest” written at the flag-ship Rightie The National Review magazine by Mark Steyn 08/30 03:53 AM
Sixth (see Kathleen’s link to Craig Ferguson below), I kinda like the whole naughty librarian vibe.
I’ve read some Democratic blog comments that were sexists, but by and large the Democrats and Democratic blogs are calling Palin out on the issues. Even if the pregnancy gossip was true, its not worth pursuing. She probably is ready to shot a moose or fix a PB&J, but is she ready to be president in the way that a foreign policy expert like Senator Biden is, A War-Time Vice-President?
I thought you might like to know that under the heading of “Sarah Palin on Foreign Policy” at the On The Issue site for her, this is what’s listed:
“No issue stance yet recorded by OnTheIssues.org.”
“Not Ready ’08”, eh?
McCain has shown that he has used foreign policy experience as a campaign issue in the most cynical way. Out of so many other candidates for the VP slot, the proverbial heart beat away from CIC, he chose the least qualified. Does she really represent women or was she a pandering nod to the shrill Right, Palin’s run raises ghost of Ferraro 24 years on
“This is just sheer political pandering. I don’t think women are going to buy it,” she said.
Ellen Malcolm, the president of Emily’s List, which supports women candidates, summarised the reasons for that anger: Palin’s positions on the issues traditionally pressed by women’s groups.
“Governor Palin and John McCain are a good match because they both want to overturn Roe v. Wade, they both want to continue the failed economic policies of the Bush administration and they both offer more of the same that has led this country down the wrong path,” she said. “McCain clearly sees the power of women voters in this election but has just as clearly failed to support any of the issues that they care about.”
Palin like the vast majority of Republican women in politics and business are more then happy to take advantage of the legal and cultural victories of feminists, while failing to give them at least a nod of acknowledgment. Sarah Palin’s mother-in-law hasn’t decided who she will vote for in November
Faye Palin admitted she enjoys hearing Barack Obama speak, and still hasn’t decided which way she’ll vote. “We don’t agree on everything. But I respect her passion,” she said. “Being pro-life is who Sarah is.”
Faye Palin said the entire family was shocked by the news on Friday. “I’m not sure what she brings to the ticket other than she’s a woman and a conservative.
She hasn’t convinced her mother-in-law yet, but Sarah has about sixty days to convince America.
Palin touts stance on ‘Bridge to Nowhere,’ doesn’t note flip-flop
But it is the federally funded Bridge to Nowhere in Ketchikan that seems destined to make or break Palin’s national reputation as a cost-cutting conservative.
The bridge was intended to provide access to Ketchikan’s airport on lightly populated Gravina Island, opening up new territory for expansion at the same time. Alaska’s congressional delegation endured withering criticism for earmarking $223 million for Ketchikan and a similar amount for a crossing of Knik Arm at Anchorage.
Congress eventually removed the earmark language but the money still went to Alaska, leaving it up to the administration of then-Gov. Frank Murkowski to decide whether to go ahead with the bridges or spend the money on something else.
In September, 2006, Palin showed up in Ketchikan on her gubernatorial campaign and said the bridge was essential for the town’s prosperity.
She said she could feel the town’s pain at being derided as a “nowhere” by prominent politicians, noting that her home town, Wasilla, had recently been insulted by the state Senate president, Ben Stevens.
“OK, you’ve got Valley trash standing here in the middle of nowhere,” Palin said, according to an account in the Ketchikan Daily News. “I think we’re going to make a good team as we progress that bridge project.”
One year later, Ketchikan’s Republican leaders said they were blindsided by Palin’s decision to pull the plug
If she’s pro entrepreneuship then its difficult to explain why she thinks the state run bsuinesses that are losing money should be propped up by taxpayers, Sarah Palin: Just How Pro-Small Business Is She?
But maybe that makes it all the more distressing for people who like pro-entrepreneur policies that one of Palin’s most significant acts as governor seems to have been propping up a failing state-owned enterprise that had lost over $700,000 in two years.
Sounds like the Ted Stevens school of politics.
The Long Goodbye 