My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.
2008-08-31
The Speeches I Hope To Hear, part 1
From Gov. Palin:
I understand that a lot will be made of the question of experience in this race. I understand that our opponents believe that experience is a good thing to have . . . . in a number two guy. I understand that our opponents believe having no foreign policy or military experience is a risky choice . . . . in a number TWO guy.
Our opponents seem to find executive experience only counts if it is for a government body of sufficient size. For the record, though it is the largest state, Alaska does have a small population--barely the population of Vermont--, and the mighty town of Wasilla has a population of just 6,700.
Which, by the way, is 6,700 more people than our opponents have governed--COMBINED.
Yes, it's true that Senator Biden first went to Washington while I was in third grade; it's true that Senator Biden's first run for President started while I was barely out of college, and still thoroughly versed in the rules governing plagiarism; and, it's true that Senator Biden has been in high profile positions, like chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, since before I was even in college. In fact, Senator Biden is such a creature of Washington that he has even more time logged in the halls of Washington than my running mate, Sen. McCain.
Unfortunately for him, that's the problem--Senator Biden is so much a creature of Washington that to begin to expect him to clean up that mess is like asking a doctor to amputate their own arm.
The problem for our opponents is that none of those experiences translate into real-life, real-time decision-making skills. Running a contentious hearing or giving a campaign speech is not the same as taking money out of the treasury and giving it back to the people who put it there so they can afford to put gas in their cars, or fighting a corrupt system and changing way business is done.
And, as inadequate as that skill set is for Senator Biden, it absolutely glows in comparison to their number ONE guy. I understand that Senator Obama has only had 143 days in the actual well of the Senate to try to earn the same valuable experiences as his running mate, so I want to give him some leeway. Of course, over the last two years, I, like most Alaskans, and indeed most Americans, have been to the office about 500 days, give or take.
Of course, I did take those three days off . . . . to be absolutely BLESSED with a baby.
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