Someone calling himself "oldefarte" had this to say in defense of Palin, while still acknowledging her inexperience:
An excellent summation, Grabanidiot, of the last 3 Secretaries of State and one hopes that, whether Obama or McCain win, they will pick a similarly qualified individual for that position, however, I thought the position in question was the Vice-Presidency?
Regrettably, Gov. Palin is not up to speed on foreign and security affairs. As a governor of a state with two international borders (3+ if you count the Arctic where there are multiple claimants) she has had some exposure to those issues (plus some very limited military experience from heading the State National Guard), but her resume' in those fields is still rather thin. Republicans should resist trying to fudge her qualifications on those issues because that fudging lacks credibility.
Rather, what Republicans should do is to point out that, limited as her own experience in those areas are, they are far superior to Sen. Obama's experience in those areas (and he has virtually no other experience to sell, either, incl. any experience acting as a chief government executive and manager, where Palin has both plenty of experience and an excellent record). The fact is that Obama's 2+ year tenure in the Senate (his ONLY real experience outside of Chicago politics) has been spent almost exclusively running for President, so he cannot even claim much expertise from his singular (and short) experience of Federal service. That is a pathetically underqualifying record and everytime the Democrats bring up "experience" as an issue, it needs only be turned back on them. In short: "Yes, we absolutely agree that a candidate for high office should have appropriate experience, so why did you nominate Obama?"
The Democrats' position is also not enhanced by the fact that it is the HEAD of their ticket who is grossly unqualified for the Presidency, whereas Gov. Palin occupies the #2 slot and will have time to get up to snuff under the tutelage of an individual who is among the most knowledgeable and experienced in those areas. If Gov. Palin, as Veep, misapprehends, it is of small moment, because the decisions will be made by Sen./Pres. McCain. If Sen./Pres. Obama misapprehends, well, all one can hope is that he thinks to call for Joe Biden before he calls for "the football" and we have no guarantee of that at all. Indeed, perhaps the most telling aspect of this campaign is that Sen. Obama has forsaken challenging his direct opponent, Sen. McCain, at all, and has leveled his "experience" arguments at Gov. Palin, an admission that he isn't remotely in the same league with McCain. We should accept that admission with grace and use it against him at every turn.
The Democrats should be held to their own standards. If they assert that a state governor, who is without Fed'l government experience, lacks the requisite qualifications for the Presidency, then they will need to acknowledge (and defend) their own past nominations of (Governors) Carter and Clinton and Dukakis. If they insist that there is some minimum quantum of pertinent experience which must be met to qualify a candidate for national office, then they should be required to explain in what way the utterly unqualified Barack Obama is a superior pick to the relatively underqualified Sarah Palin, and to further explain why he is at the head of their ticket, rather than playing second string.
And to those who then attempt to change the issue from "experience" to "judgment", we can always look at Joe Biden's 34 year Senate record versus John McCain's 26 year Congressional record. What one will find, in a hurry, is that Biden has been wrong most of the time and McCain right.
This "experience" debate is one the Republicans should relish, esp. after being told by the Obama camp, throughout the long primary campaign, that "experience" was vastly overrated. If they've now discovered the folly of that position, we should gladly welcome them back to the ranks of "critical thinkers" and then beat them senseless with their own ticket.
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Any thoughts? I ask because I wonder how we demand experience and still support Obama (I'm still voting for him, don't worry).
Tell me your thoughts...
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