Last updated on August 11th, 2014 at 12:01 am
Although it defies all logic and common sense, the McCain campaign continued to paint Sarah Palin as more experienced and qualified to be president than Barack Obama. What is laughable is that the McCain campaign thinks that people are stupid enough to buy the argument that Palin is even remotely qualified to be on this ticket.
Obama was asked on Anderson Cooper 360 about the McCain campaign’s charge that Palin has more executive experience. He replied, “Well, my understanding is that Governor Palin’s town of Wasilla has I think 50 employees. We’ve got 2,500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. You know, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month. So I think that our ability to manage large systems and to execute I think has been made clear over the last couple of years.”
This led Tucker Downs of the McCain campaign to retort, “For Barack Obama to argue that he’s experienced enough to be president because he’s running for president is desperate circular logic and it’s laughable. It is a testament to Barack Obama’s inexperience and failing qualifications that he would stoop to passing off his candidacy as comparable to Governor Sarah Palin’s executive experience managing a budget of over 10 billion dollar dollars, and more than 24,000 employees.”
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The Sarah Palin tall tale continues to grow. Now she has foreign policy and budgetary experience. What’s laughable is that the McCain campaign keeps trying to pass off this big lie. Here is the way budgeting works. The fiscal year runs from September 30-September 30. Palin has only been governor for a year and half. The budget for her first year in office was already passed before she was elected, so she has dealt with exactly one state budget. When you compare this to people like Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, and Tom Ridge, her resume looks quite thin.
I understand the point the point that Obama was trying to make, but all he really has to say is I’ve had four years in the US Senate, and eight years in the Illinois state senate. He should say that the Republicans are running a candidate with zero federal experience, who may have to abruptly replace a 72 year old man who has already had cancer twice.
Obama’s argument was weak, because campaigning and governing is not the same thing. George W. Bush ran a tight, well organized campaign in 2000, but he has run one of the most undisciplined unorganized, inept administrations ever. Obama doesn’t need to say anything. Palin is already the gift that keeps on giving for the Democrats. The McCain campaign is the one with the problem, as according to the most recent polls 33%-39% of those surveyed believed that Palin isn’t qualified to be president.
She will help McCain with his base, but the Republican base is not big enough to win in November. It is now clear that she wasn’t even McCain’s first or second choice, and it is my guess that we are only at the beginning of the Sarah Palin debacle. Republicans talk about Democratic fractures, but McCain had to make a running mate choice just to appease the base. There are real problems with this ticket, so Barack Obama should just sit back and watch it all unwind.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
