Many opponents of Governor Sarah Palin have criticized her for her alleged lack of experience. They cannot be further off the target.
As a sitting governor, Sarah Palin had more executive experience than Obama and Biden combined, even after she completed her first day in office.
Almost every president in this past century has been a governor with no (or virtually no) foreign policy experience. Palin will be at an advantage over these presidents since, if elected, she will first acquire foreign policy experience while on the job as vice president from a president whose foreign policy experience and sacrifice are legendary, and, of course, from many other people with the highest of qualifications.
Obama, who has negligible experience in foreign policy, will have to learn many of the practical aspects of the position while on the job, AFTER Day One. Even his partial only term as a U.S. senator has been spent, to a great extent, running for president and shaking hands with potential voters. Thus, although Palin and Obama have been in their current relatively high positions for a relatively brief time for a candidate for national office, his years as a senator are objectively characterized by underachievement, whereas Palin’s mere year and a fraction as governor are characterized, as even her opponents are forced to concede, by overachievement, as will be highlighted below.
Just a few months ago the Clintons and Biden said that Obama was not ready to serve; now they say that he is. What they should say, at most, is that by Day One Obama may -- or may not -- be ready to serve. If Obama can become ready to serve as President by Day One, Palin can surely be ready to serve as Vice President by Day One. On the other extreme, the experienced Biden can just bide his time until the eighth year when he will set his sights on running for president himself, at an age more advanced than McCain’s today.
Palin’s approval rating has reached 80% within her state, higher than that of any other governor of any other state, man or woman. So in a way she has earned more credentials than any other governor based on her measure of success as determined by her own constituents. Clearly, the claim that she was selected solely because of her gender should therefore get no votes, and her ability to become more successful than any other governor in so short a period of time is an achievement to be applauded rather than to be criticized.
Time in office isn’t as important as what one does with this time.
It is false to state that Palin began her political career in public service as mayor of a town. First she served two terms on the City Council; then she served two terms as the mayor; and then she was elected governor of the largest state in the country.
What Palin’s detractors often do not mention is that even though she was so young during her terms as mayor and so relatively inexperienced, she was elected President of the Alaskan Conference of Mayors, and Chair of the Alaska Conservation Commission, which shows that she matured on the job and impressed her colleagues far beyond what one would expect based on age and seniority.
As governor, she likewise has transcended her local position, serving as not just a member but the Chair of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, a multi-state government agency. She was also named not just a member but the Chair of the National Governors Association (NGA) Natural Resources Committee, after having served as co-chair.
It is clear that Governor Palin has demonstrated that she is a “quick study,” rising to positions of leadership and respect in record time, which is what is needed in a person with relatively little experience. By contrast, Obama was such a slow learner that he sat in church for 20 years without realizing what his pastor stood for. Is this the kind of a person we want to be able to make instant decisions in the event of nuclear missile crises?
Obama was such a slow learner that even the relatively old John McCain was quicker to change his mind about offshore drilling upon seeing that the realities had changed (while both presidential candidates continue to support development of alternative energy as well). Obama seems like the slowest or most hesitant person ever to head a national party’s presidential ticket, having answered “present” rather than “aye” or “nay” over 100 times in a single year. Again, the person authorized to press the button or not to press the button in a high-stakes nuclear world must simply have faster and less reflective reflexes.
Actually, Governor Palin comes to the job with a resume that borders on having foreign relations experience more than that of virtually every other governor who succeeded to the presidency or the vice presidency in that Alaska’s borders are far more extensive than the borders of any other state, and they border on the largest country in America on one side, and the world’s only other superpower on the other side. She has had dealings with the Canadians on one side, and has had much more exposure to the Russians than any other state, on the other side.
Even without any presidential ambitions, while still a governor, Ms. Palin had the experience of traveling to Kuwait to visit the troops because members of her national guard were there. The fact that her son enlisted in the military, incidentally, and is headed for Iraq also negates, at least as to her, the claim leveled against most white males in Congress that they are quick to send other people’s sons overseas to risk their lives for their country. Palin and McCain have sons in the military; Biden has a son who is a lobbyist. Interesting contrast! In fairness, Biden also has a son, Beau, who plans to go to Iraq next month, but not as an infantryman a la Track Palin, who signed up on September 11 of last year (a most deliberately chosen date), but Beau is to go as a captain in the Delaware Army National Guard’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps., an attorney who just happened to be in the National Guard in wartime. The elder (prospective V.P.) Biden’s judgment is so poor, incidentally, despite all his experience and credentials, that he opposed the first Iraq war which had almost unanimous support throughout the civilized world, but supported the follow-up war that was opposed by many countries and people, including Obama!)
The Biden nomination simultaneously torpedoed Obama’s two main mantras – that he was for change (and against Washington insiders) and against relatively old people serving in the nation’s highest position. McCain’s nomination of Governor Palin does NOT similarly undercut McCain’s position in favor of experience since (1) Palin has more executive experience than Obama and Biden combined, as previously pointed out, (2) Palin is only the number 2 person on the ticket, and can still learn on the job, while Obama would be relatively unqualified and inexperienced on Day One, (3) The fact that anti-Palin analysts find her inadequate to serve even as vice-president should highlight Obama’s more glaring inadequacy to serve as president; (4) Palin’s track record as a governor is already more impressive than the track records of most governors who have served much longer than she has; and (5) most presidents in the modern era have been governors and not just senators.
Obama’s thin resume is so thin that his campaign is reduced to highlighting his time spent as a “community organizer.” He and his campaign have ridiculed Palin’s service as the mayor of a small town. To which Governor Palin responded with the classic line, “the difference between a mayor of a small town and a community organizer is that a mayor has responsibility.”
Palin also did better than the most experienced of politicians in her acceptance speech not merely in what she said and how she said it, but in the fact that the teleprompter malfunctioned in the middle, and virtually nobody knew it, the way Governor Palin simply continued, without missing a beat. She will clearly be hard to beat. And she clearly demonstrated that those who ridiculed her performance as only being able to read a teleprompter thereby inadvertently highlighted her ability as a great communicator despite the malfunction of the teleprompter.
As to those who disagree with Governor Palin’s views on abortion or a couple of other issues, voters should keep in mind that decisions taken regarding the ballot box are complex, whether they are made out of the box or not, and should generally not be reduced to a single issue, or even to two or three. As the similarly independent, colorful, and maverick 3-time Mayor of New York Ed Koch has been quoted to have said, “If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 important positions that I take, vote for me; if you agree with me on 12 out of 12, see a psychiatrist!”
