Well Said
September 26th, 2008I encourage all voters to watch this video:
Palin’s experience in just 12 minutes
Via: Waxy.
Lawrence Lessig compares the experience of every single Vice President of the United States. Spoiler: there were two with experience similar to Palin. One was indicted (Agnew). I suppose one could argue that lack of experience is somehow a good thing. Typically, presidential candidates have chosen to balance their inexperience by choosing a more experienced VP to run with them.
The issue with experience was brought into this campaign by John McCain and his staff. They made the blunder of choosing someone unfit for office who is woefully under experienced. o
Tags: 2008 presidential election, lack of experience, Lawrence Lessig, Palin
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September 26th, 2008 at 8:31 am
The active premise in the video is that government experience is the only experience that qualifies someone to be President. Personally, I consider extensive experience in government to be a negative.
As someone who likes Palin, I concede she lacks experience. As does Obama. I dislike Obama’s experience more, because he’s been heavily involved in politics his entire adult life.
You said, “someone unfit for office who is woefully under experienced.”
Just for clarification, are you saying she’s unfit for office AND under experienced, or are you saying she’s unfit for office BECAUSE she’s under experienced? I’m not making a point with this, but seriously asking what you meant. If you meant AND, please clarify why she’s unfit for office in addition to being under experienced.
Now, McCain attacked Obama’s foreign policy experience based on what I consider to be Obama’s serious blunder in saying he’d meet with enemy leaders without preconditions. He used Obama’s statement as his basis for saying Obama lacked experience. I didn’t find other statements McCain made about Obama’s experience before the Obama camp attacked Palin’s experience. Maybe he did, I couldn’t find them.
Campaign rhetoric is always BS from both sides. For instance, Obama’s message is change, but Joe Biden has been in the Senate for 36 years. How is that change?
The bottom line is that 99% of the people attacking Palin for being “vapid” or “vacuous” or under experienced, or “caribou barbie” or “not really a woman” or any of the other personal attacks wouldn’t vote for her no matter what her experience because they disagree with her positions.
Just like McCain was every Democrat’s pet Republican when he was embarassing his own party with criticisms (often justified) but as soon as he became candidate for President we found out from those same folks that he was just another evil Republican.
September 26th, 2008 at 9:18 am
@dross, unfit AND under experienced.
The point of the video is asking a couple of questions you and other supporters of Palin have never answered in all of the comments that have been left here:
Is Palin worth the risk? Is John McCain’s recklessness worth the risk?
September 26th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Yes, it’s an amazing indictment. But in 40 days, I have to vote on the guys running for president. In my 54 years of life, the VP rarely has much to do with what happens in the country.
If experience worries you, as it does me, let’s have this discussion about the presidential candidates. If I really, truly believed that experience didn’t matter I’d consider voting for Mr. O.
But in everything I’ve ever done professionally, people with very little experience make lots of very expensive mistakes. That also seems to be true in web hosting, to blogging, to astronauts to flood control. So I really can’t vote for someone to be President on that basis.
And that’s what I’m being asked to do. The VP is a “maybe”.
Thanks, BTW, for having a calm and reasoned discourse over here. I love both your blogs.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:51 am
blurb,
I asked you a question you didn’t answer:
Why, in your opinion, is Palin unfit other than her lack of experience?
As to answering your questions, it’s difficult because I don’t agree with the premises imbedded in your questions that you seem to assume as unassailable fact.
Here’s my answers as best as I can.
Is Palin worth the risk?
What risk? That she won’t carry out her stated beliefs or that she will? She seems to me to be strong-willed and smart enough to carry out her beliefs, which align with mine closer than they do with any of the other three candidates. If you can tell me what you mean by “risk,” I will tell you if electing her is worth it to me.
Is McCain’s recklessness worth the risk?
Again, you seem to think your premise is obvious, which it may very well be to those who share your philosophical bent. I don’t see McCain as reckless, so I don’t know how to answer. McCain bothers me as a candidate because I don’t think he has the same commitment to freedom and small government that I do. I differ from McCain on many, many issues. I don’t know how, he’s reckless, however. Is he worth the risk? He is risky to me, because I’m afraid that his philosophy is so different from mine that he’ll do things I don’t agree with.
I think Obama will effectively execute his philosophy, which is precisely why I don’t want him to be President. I disagree with Obama fundamentally on almost every issue under discussion. Obama’s views and mine are 180 degrees out on most things I consider important.
I guess I don’t get where “risk” comes into it.
September 29th, 2008 at 12:42 am
The true horror continues unspoken. IMO, when people say she is unqualified to be VP they are really concerned about her fitness for the office of POTUS. Even in its most basic of errand-boy/girl Friday incarnations, VP has little control over anything. What scares the pants off of me is the possibility that she may accede to the presidency.
Can we please say that? Stop dancing around the bush (no pun intended). VP sounds like PTA mom, baking cookies in the White House mess with Kissinger. I wish McCain good health and a long life. But, Goddess forbid, something should happen, no way no how I want her making decisions for me or my country. Heck, I wouldn’t trust her to remember to feed my proverbial cat when I’m out of town.
It should sound scary because it is scary. She is not fit to be president. Full stop. Leave out the “vice.”