UPDATE # 2: Last year, she was much more qualified. I wonder what happened?
In Alaska, Palin is challenging the dominant, sometimes corrupting, role of oil companies in the state’s political culture. “The public has put a lot of faith in us,” says Palin during a meeting with lawmakers in her downtown Anchorage office, where—as if to drive the point home—the giant letters on the side of the ConocoPhillips skyscraper fill an entire wall of windows. “They’re saying, ‘Here’s your shot, clean it up’.” For Palin, that has meant tackling the cozy relationship between the state’s political elite and the energy industry that provides 85 percent of Alaska’s tax revenues—and distancing herself from fellow Republicans, including the state’s senior U.S. senator, Ted Stevens, whose home was recently searched by FBI agents looking for evidence in an ongoing corruption investigation. (Stevens has denied any wrongdoing.) But even as she tackles Big Oil’s power, Palin has transformed her own family’s connections to the industry into a political advantage. Her husband, Todd, is a longtime employee of BP, but, as Palin points out, the “First Dude” is a blue-collar “sloper,” a fieldworker on the North Slope, a cherished occupation in the state. “He’s not in London making the decisions whether to build a gas line.”
In an interview with NEWSWEEK, Palin said it’s time for Alaska to “grow up” and end its reliance on pork-barrel spending. Shortly after taking office, Palin canceled funding for the “Bridge to Nowhere,” a $330 million project that Stevens helped champion in Congress. The bridge, which would have linked the town of Ketchikan to an island airport, had come to symbolize Alaska’s dependence on federal handouts. Rather than relying on such largesse, says Palin, she wants to prove Alaska can pay its own way, developing its huge energy wealth in ways that are “politically and environmentally clean.”
Well, that was then and this is now. Even the New York Times has changed its mind:
Where is it written that only senators are qualified to become President?… Or where is it written that mere representatives aren’t qualified, like Geraldine Ferraro of Queens?… Where is it written that governors and mayors, like Dianne Feinstein of San Francisco, are too local, too provincial?… Presidential candidates have always chosen their running mates for reasons of practical demography, not idealized democracy…. What a splendid system, we say to ourselves, that takes little-known men, tests them in high office and permits them to grow into statesmen…. Why shouldn’t a little-known woman have the same opportunity to grow?… [T]he indispensable credential for a Woman Who [sic] is the same as for a Man Who [sic] – one who helps the ticket.
That, of course, was from 1984.
ORIGINAL POST
A new development has appeared in the presidential campaign. Barack Obama has started to compare his qualifications for office to those of Sarah Palin. This is amazing. It began here. A left wing blog called Talk Left was running a pool on how long before Sarah Palin withdraws as a candidate for VP. The deluge of leftist slime seems to them to be too much for her to resist. I agree that it is disgusting but the left has seemingly transferred its hate of George Bush over to Sarah. Why ? Here is one opinion. A bit whimsical but with a good insight into the truth.
But she’s not a Democrat, which despite her va-va-va-voom appearance, means she’s not really a woman, which is one of the reasons we’ve spent the past four days since McCain unveiled her trying to tear her limb from limb. Just because she’s the governor of a state sandwiched between two obscure and unimportant countries, Canada and Russia, and spent more time in her first five minutes visiting American troops in Iraq than Evita Barry did during his entire Rainbow Tour, what could she possibly know about foreign policy? It’s not like she’s John Edwards or something.
So that’s why we’re having our Wellstone Funeral Moment at the moment. We mean well; we promised ourselves we wouldn’t go over the top with our outright loathing of the Neanderthals who preach “Christian” values while practicing Wiccanism and child sacrifice and who hate black people and gay people and want to destroy the environment just because they can, and want to amass more money than even John Kerry or Jon Corzine or Herb Kohl or Jay Rockefeller or Dianne Feinstein — the five richest senators — or Ted Kennedy or John Edwards or Nancy Pelosi have. That, usually, is the Kos Kidz’s job. Along with speculating exactly how Bush got from My Pet Goat to planting the depth charges that blew up the levees in New Orleans.
But sometimes the mask slips and you can see — whoops! — how much we hate you.
The new development is that Obama, himself, cannot resist the temptation to join the fray. He is supposed to be the presidential nominee, far above the concerns of a vice-president, which everybody knows doesn’t really matter. Why is he inserting himself, and even comparing himself, to her ? He was being interviewed on CNN, a friendly venue, when this revealing exchange took place.
COOPER: And, Senator Obama, my final question — your — some of your Republican critics have said you don’t have the experience to handle a situation like this. They in fact have said that Governor Palin has more executive experience, as mayor of a small town and as governor of a big state of Alaska. What’s your response?
OBAMA: Well, you know, my understanding is, is that Governor Palin’s town of Wasilla has, I think, 50 employees. We have 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. And, certainly, in terms of the legislation that I passed just dealing with this issue post-Katrina of how we handle emergency management, the fact that many of my recommendations were adopted and are being put in place as we speak, I think, indicates the degree to which we can provide the kinds of support and good service that the American people expect.
Whaaat ?
Just for the record, Alaska’s FY2008 operating budget is $11.2 billion, and the state employs approximately 15,000 people. Those certainly aren’t huge numbers in federal terms, but they’re a good bit bigger than the Obama campaign.
What is he thinking off ? Maybe this. He has lost his cool and this will defeat him if nothing else will. He feels it’s necessary to lie about the qualifications of the vice-presidential nominee. Why ? Because she threatens him. The race has turned upside down.
What ever happened to Joe Biden ?
UPDATE: Here is a piece by an Alaskan about Sarah and her record as governor.
And here is “Sarah America” on energy.
Dear Dr. K.:
When Senator Obama writes:
“…in terms of the legislation that I passed just dealing with this issue post-Katrina of how we handle emergency management, the fact that many of my recommendations were adopted and are being put in place as we speak, …”
Which pieces of legislation did he write on this topic? Which recommendations?
I’m sensing a real kinship between Senator Obama and Senator Biden…
Mike, did some of your comments just disappear? I thought there were more here.
I have seen comments disappear before. I periodically delete spam but try to be careful to keep the non-spam. I still don’t have a good spam filter and Word Press is no help. I’ve even seen my own go away and was sure I had not inadvertently deleted them.
The title of your post says it all. Obama has been reduced to comparing his qualifications to those of Palin. Some said Palin was a poor choice as it would defeat the purpose of pointing out Obama’s lack of experience when she may be accused of the same.
Except that it has instead highlighted Obama’s lack of experience in that Obama himself hasn’t nearly the experience Palin has in managing people or budgets or making decisions where one has accountability.
Obama has been reduced to saying that his 18 months of managing his campaign trumps Palin’s experience. Not exzactly. He has a campaign manager and comparing running a campaign for office to that of a Governoer of state with billion dollar budgets is laughable.
I have to learn how to type but doing Daddy duty while caring for 2 year old twins gives me about 2 seconds to get a comment off now and then.
Chris Matthews last night said she is “a torpedo aimed at Obama” and I think that was insightful.