Posted by
Vocis Ratio on Thursday, September 25, 2008 12:47:04 AM
From the minute McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, the Democrats have not ceased to rail against her "lack of experience." A candidate with a dearth of experience, that sounds familiar. Let's compare the political exerience of the Republican VICE PRESIDENTIAL candidate with that of the Democratic PRESIDENTIAL candidate.
Sarah Palin:
December 4 2006--took office as Governor of Alaska (1)
607 days as Governor
August 29 2008--selected as McCain's running mate (2)
Barack Obama:
January 4 2005--sworn in as US Senator (3)
705 days that Congress was in session (4)
January 16 2007--announced intention to run for President (5)
After taking the office of United States Senator, Congress was in session for 705 days before Obama decided he was ready to be President. I cannot verify this, but I have heard the number 143 listed as the days Obama actually logged in the Senate before announcing his intention to run for President. At any rate, it is certain that he did not spend all of those 705 days in the Senate. And after announcing his intention to run for President, I wonder where sufficiently experienced Senator Obama spent his time. Reading over legislation or raising obscene amounts of money for his campaign? On Capitol Hill or on airplanes criss-crossing the country?
After taking office, Palin served as Governor of Alaska for 607 days before accepting the number two spot on the Republican ticket. She served as Governor of Alaska for every one of those 607 days. The state of Alaska does not recess like the Sentate.
Other obeservations:
US Senators are twice as common as Governors.
Governors make executive decisions, Senators do not.
I'm not denying the positions of either Senator or Governor as acceptable places to find Presidential candidates, but two years as Governor of a state is much more valuable in terms of executive experience as two years than US Senator.
Sarah Palin has executive experience (and is running for VICE PRESIDENT of the United States); Barack Obama does not have executive experience (and is running for PRESIDENT of the United States). Why is this man even being considered for the Presidency?
- Vocis Ratio
(1)
http://gov.state.ak.us/bio.html
(2)
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/29/palin.republican.vp.candidate/
(3)
http://obama.senate.gov/about/
(4)
http://www.thegreenpapers.com/soc/
(5)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/16/AR2007011600529.html