I Miss Harriet Miers
Posted on August 29th, 2008 at 7:27 pm by Contributor Archive
So remember that one time way back in 2008 when the McCain campaign accused Obama of being inexperienced… being inexperienced… being inexperienced… and then McCain ended up choosing the inexperienced Harriet Miers as his running mate?
Sorry, freudian slip. I meant Sarah Palin.
Condoleeza Rice = makes sense.
Tim Pawlenty = makes sense.
Mike Huckabee = kinda makes sense.
Mitt Romney = slimy, but makes sense.
Hillary Clinton = impossible, but even that makes more sense.
But the inexperienced Sarah Palin?
So remember that one time way back in 2008 when the Obama campaign accused McCain of being too similar to George Bush… being too similar to George Bush… being too similar to George Bush… and then Obama ended up choosing George Bush as his running mate?
Yeah, that was funny. Good times.
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Sarah Palin is not too inexperienced, she’s running for Vice President of the United States. She still has more experience than Obama, and more executive experience than anyone on either ticket.
Let it go. She doesn’t have experience. We all know that and to claim otherwise is silly.
Build on her strengths, she’s a good conservative and good looking. But that’s all you got my friend. Let it be.
No, I will not let it go. This is an attempt by the left (being unwittingly aided by the far right), to define Sarah Palin in terms that is just not true.
She has more Government experience than Obama. She first ran for office in 1992, the year Obama first became started his teaching career.
She’s a great pick, and I’m proud to have her as my Vice Presidential candidate.
As long as the left keeps trying to confuse the American people, I will continue to set the record straight.
Obama was elected to the Illinois State Legislature in 1996, and served there until 2004, when he was elected to United States Senate. To say that the State Senate does not give proper credit to all the State Senators and their service.
Palin served on the City Council in 1992. She was elected mayor in 1996, the same time as Obama’s State Senate Career began.
The assertion that she has a drastic amount of more experience than Obama because she served on the City Council is ludicrous. Obama has served public office for 12 years. Palin did not work on the state level until elected governor in 2006.
She might be a good pick, but considering the experience others had above her, which was McCain’s main argument against Obama, her experience was definitely not the reason.
I did not intend to communicate that Palin has drastically more experience than Obama. If I communicated that, I apologize.
They roughly have the same amount of experience, though Palin has slightly more.
I would suggest that Palin has more valuable experience having run both a local and state government. Unlike Obama, who became famous by giving speeches…Palin has made her career by leading and making decisions.
It’s almost laughable that the left would dare criticize Palin’s experience, when she (the Vice Presidential candidate), has more experience than Obama (their Presidential candidate).
Let’s not kid ourselves either, there is a drastic difference in being President and Vice President of the United States.
Fine. Then lets just say they BOTH don’t have enough experience. You can’t make the argument that she is experienced. You want to go around acting like serving as mayor of a small town makes her more prepared than Obama. Fine. She beats Obama’s experience. Wow, thats like comming in first place in the special olympics.
Let’s agree that they both have the experience to be VICE President. And that they both have running mates with foreign policy experience.
The real question is whether John McCain or Barack Obama have the judgment and foreign policy experience to be POTUS.
Obama wants to invade Pakistan (our ally), Obama wants to get rid of our missile defense system, Obama thinks that Russia and Georgia are moral equivalents.
John McCain is ready to lead, Obama isn’t. It’s that simple.
God you are so obtuse.
Was that directed at me, or at God?
I had to look it up, proving that I am somewhat obtuse. God on the other is not obtuse at all.
Speaking of obtuse…what’s your favorite triangle? I personally like right triangles. Nothing quite like Pythagorean Theorem.
Hehe, nah, God isn’t obtuse, but at least you admit you are.
As far as my favorite triangles, I’m not quite sure. But I do know I don’t like right angles
Andru,
Be nice to Patrick.
He has an ocular condition which doesn’t allow him to properly see triangles.
All he can see is one side.
Jumping in to defend Palin. Cant let her get jumped on the first day can we.
Palin has more experience than Obama and Biden in the executive branch. Final, she is a governor. A governor does a lot of decisions daily, even in a small state. You dont stay in a senate, make speeches, argue, and vote on a few subjects. You are encharged of everything immediately.
Being a mayor of a growing city may or may not be hard, some mayors are just figurheads, others are dictators. We can count Sara’s Time here as learning experience.
The time she served on the board was experience, she delt with the worst of corruption in Alaska, which sent her into political exile.
Raising 5 children, in what americans picture as the north pole is also learning experience in another area.
The point being made that she does have lifelong learning experience, (Which even I have) lets concentrate on Alaska.
What experience could she have???
Well, Alaska is the only state in the Union that has 2 neighbouring countrys bordering it, and cut off from the rest of the lower 48.
Fishing is a major enterprise is Alaska, she would have had to deal with russia in fishing agreements, she got a deal with Canada for a gas pipeline, thereby angering the Oil Companies who wanted their own contract. Alaska is one of the only states where the natural resources belong to the people, not to the oil companies, and she has had to fight to keep it that way.
At the least the selction of Gov. Sarah Palin as VP is going to require John McCain and his team to change their “inexperienced” campaign 180 degrees. Why?
McCain and Palin:
February 12, 2009: It’s 3am and the phone rings in the White House…
President John McCain has been in intensive care at Walter Reed Medical Center for 5 days now with congestive heart failure brought on by a case of severe pneumonia which he contracted while on an early February foreign policy trip to Poland, Georgia and the other break-away former Soviet republics where the winter temperatures were below zero for days in a row. Such an illness is not uncommon for a 72 year old man, especially under such severe weather conditions and stress.
Vice President Sarah Palin has assumed the office of President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief. She has never traveled to Eastern Europe, according to her biography.
On the other end of the 3am phone call are Secretary of Defense Lindsay Graham and Secretary of State Joe Lieberman. Both are together with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the other five stars in the Pentagon situation room.
The topic: Military intelligence has discovered the Russian military has massed troops on the borders of three former Soviet states, two of which are members of NATO.
Intellegence further has found that the Russians have been conducting clandestine activities in all three of these Democratic nations for at least one week now. These activities include a plot to murder one of the country’s leaders. That country is a member of NATO.
THe NATO charter, which President Palin read only for the first time in her life in October, 2008 under the direction of John McCain’s chief campaign foreign policy advisor, states that an attack of any kind on one NATO member state is an attack on all the others–including the United States.
There is confusion among the NATO member states. The democratic former Soviet states that are now members of NATO are calling for immediate troop support from the U.S., Great Britain, Germany and France. Britain is ready to move. France is close to being on board. Germany is on the fence. All three are waiting for the world’s mightiest military power–the United States–to lead. They all want to know…What would John McCain do. But he is in no shape to be consulted at his hospital bedside. Governor and now President Sarah Palin is in charge.
Sec of state Lieberman wants to move U.S. troops in-country immediatly. The five stars aren’t sure. Defense Secretary Lindsay Graham has one foot with Lieberman and one foot with the Chiefs.
On the 3am conference call, which has now been joined by new conservative British PM David Cameron–who wants to move U.S. and British troops in country right away–they all say…”It’s your decision Governor (Prsident) Palin. America must lead–but also must make the RIGHT decision. Any action could trigger a Nuclear war after all.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden:
February 12, 2008: It’s 3am and the phone rings in the White House.
President Barack Obama who has recently returned from a European trip, along with Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State Dick Luger, answers the call.
On the line are Lugar, Hagel and Vice President Joe Biden. The three former Senators worked for decades together on foreign and military affairs in the Senate, and all three were mentors to a young Senator Obama, who now is President and Commandor and chief.
Obama also worked closely in the U.S. Senate with then Foreign Affairs Committee GOP Chairman Lugar on an extensive plan to dismantle loose Soviet Nukes. Lugar praised Obama for his role in the legislation.
Despite being Republicans, Hagel and Luger are used to taking a bi-partison approach, as are Biden and Obama, having all worked together closely on numerous issues on more than one Senate foreign and military affairs committee.
Lugar and Biden have worked together so closely for so long–each respectively as the Chair and Ranking member of the Foreign Affairs committee–that they are considered partners as VP and Sec of State.
Biden quickly lays out the issues to President Obama, with Lugar and Hagel adding comments in a way that only men who’ve worked for years together–and who respect bipartisianship–can do.
The Russians have troops massed on the borders of three countries, two of which are NATO members, Biden tells President Obama.Hagel adds that intellegence also has uncovered a Rissian plot to kill one of the democratically elected Presidents of one of the two NATO- member countries.
Since all four former Senators, and particularly Luger and Biden, have spend much time with Russian Prime Minister Putin, they have much insight into how he thinks.
All four men also have met with the leaders of every NATO member-nation during their time in the U.S. Senate. President Obama and his team have the full confidence of the leaders of Great Britain, France, Germany and the other NATO countries.
Biden, Lugar and Hagel all provide President Obama with vital information, analysis and opinions–but feel comfortable and confident in his decision. After all, all three voted for him in the November, 2008 Presidential election.
It’s 3am at the White House…But a President and Vice President have the experience to deal with such a call. And if President Obama were to be in hospital like President McCain, Joe Biden has the experience to handle that 3am phone call without a doubt.
You tell quite a story.
Yes I do Andru1…and I only wish it was fiction rather than so potentially non-fiction.
How about “Obama is in the hospital after an assassination attempt and Biden serving as president has just referred told a Russian newspaper he is glad they now have a clean, articulate leader. He also asked the head of Iran during recent talks if that was him or his brother he saw at the 7-11 last weekend.”
If we are going to talk about hypotheticals, then lets discuss the fact that Obama has a VP with the biggest case of foot in mouth in Washington next to the current president…though his tends to be grammatical and Bidens tends to be insultingly stupid.
President Palin would send a stern message to Russia as U.S. Soldiers enmassed on the other side of the border. Russia has 24 hours to stand down or face the consequences of their actions.
I’m gonna post this again later but this is the speech that Obama should have gave the other night —->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DVYjJtvsCM
Stavros333 is carrying on the tradition of Dr. King. Obama isn’t.
What makes her less experienced than Obama exactly?
Has anyone noticed what the topic of conversation ALL day has been, “EXPERIENCE”. We are now comparing the “experience” of the top of one ticket to that of the bottom of the other ticket, exactly the conversation I am willing to have “anytime anyplace anywhere” as the topic itself discredits Obama’s credentials more and more every time it is discussed.
GREAT Job J-Mack!!! Brilliant!
I agree, Brian.
Fantastic stragey.
Remember who did Miers in, it was the conservatives who killed her nomination.
Palin energizes the conservative base of the party, and many women.
My wife and mother-in-law both voted for Hillary in the Texas primaries. At noon today I received a very enthusiastic text message about the Palin pick, so there are at least two Hillary voters who are now in camp-McCain.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
The campaign just let out some biographical info on Sarah Palin, including that her favorite food is Moose Stew. Not kidding.
You got something against moose?
I love venison bologna myself. Bison is also excellent.
Red meat for Red State, I always say…
You silly rabbits (or Donkeys and Elephants politically speaking)…experience isn’t a mere quantitative thing. Lets see…4 years on the city council of a town of 9,000 in Alaska should equal about 1.5 years in the Illinois state legislature.
But one year as Governor, that should at least be superior to 2.5 years in the U.S. Senate…that is if you carry the 2 and square the .05 of course.
Look at the whole, not the mere sum of its parts. Qaulitative. I could care less which side you come down on…but for God’s sake don’t be so silly.
Having hired executives with less than half the experience as other candidates, I can tell you experience is relative…and often after a certain point can be counterproductive. What you want is a combination of experience, intellegence (emotional intellegence as well), conservatism combined with risk taking, and other variables.
BUt comparing Palin to Obama is apples and organges. Her chief role as VP–as John McCain loves to say of the position of VPis to wait around and then step in as Prsident if anything happens to the President (him).
Despite all her seemingly positive qualities and intellegence, I believe she fails that test. ANd really think it was irresponsible of McCain to put her in that position to fail it.
And that response pretty much tells us you know that you have no legs to stand on.
look, i am a conservative who supported romney and am now voting mccain, but this palin pick was shockingly stupid. palin has been the governor of a state barely more populous than washington dc for a YEAR AND HALF, and before that she was the mayor of a town the size of a large high school. She has zero foreign policy experience, and has admitted to never even thinking about Iraq until 2007, and even then she has never said anything of substance on the issue of foreign policy. Obama is basically as inexperienced, and therefore cannot attack her on experience, as supporters of the palin pick have correctly noted. however, that is completely beside the point. what this means is that MCCAIN cannot attack OBAMA on experience anymore, and that was mccain’s greatest argument in his favor. how can he claim that obama is too inexperienced to be president if he has displayed that he considers palin to be experienced enough to take over as leader of the free world at any moment? this pick was pure politics, i’m afraid. he’s going after hillary’s women, and even that could backfire if they see it as tokenism. even some gop strategists are worried about her. ramesh ponnuru and david frum are among them.
in addition, this is also kind of unfair to palin, one of the gop’s true rising stars. she’s been a fantastic governor. however, exposing her to the national stage this early was extremely premature, and if mccain loses, it might finish her political career, which would be a tragic loss for this country. if she had been governor for two terms, rather than less than two years, she would have been a much more solid pick.
this question of gubernatorial vs. senatorial experience is laughable. the presidency of the united states is a position quite unlike governor or senator; neither is better than the other. if it’s a senator running, his opponents say he has no managerial experience. if it’s a governor running, his opponents say he has no foreign policy experience. BOTH SIDES ARE RIGHT. only someone who’s been a governor AND a senator can possibly be fully qualified in all the aspects of what a president is. presidents manage the country, yes, but they also deal with foreign policy and have to deal with congress, which are two things senators would know more about than governors. obama, mccain, and biden all lack managerial experience, and palin lacks foreign policy experience. it’s quite simple. both are equally important, so being a governor doesn’t qualify you more than being a senator, and being a senator doesn’t qualify you more than being a governor.
Cold Water on Palin [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Both the pros and the cons are pretty obvious. I’m going to focus on the cons, mostly because conservatives right now seem to be paying them less attention.
The pros: She’s a pro-life conservative reformer from outside Washington, and a woman. The pick signals a boldness and willingness to mix things up that the McCain campaign, like Republicans generally, need.
The cons:
Inexperience. Palin has been governor for about two minutes. Thanks to McCain’s decision, Palin could be commander-in-chief next year. That may strike people as a reckless choice; it strikes me that way. And McCain’s age raised the stakes on this issue.
As a political matter, it undercuts the case against Obama. Conservatives are pointing out that it is tricky for the Obama campaign to raise the issue of her inexperience given his own, and note that the presidency matters more than the vice-presidency. But that gets things backward. To the extent the experience, qualifications, and national-security arguments are taken off the table, Obama wins.
And it’s not just foreign policy. Palin has no experience dealing with national domestic issues, either. (On the other hand, as Kate O’Beirne just told me, we know that Palin will be ready for that 3 a.m. phone call: She’ll already be up with her baby.)
Tokenism. Can anyone say with a straight face that Palin would have gotten picked if she were a man?
Compatibility. It doesn’t seem as though McCain knows Palin well. Do we have much reason to think they would work well together?
Debates. Maybe, as Jonah said the other day, Biden will look like a bully going up against her—and maybe she’ll shine. But I can think of a lot of other picks who would have been lower-risk.
I am not even sure that the pick will have quite the galvanizing effect on conservatives that it seems to be having now as it sinks in. The concerns I’ve mentioned here—about her readiness and her credentials—are the kind of thing that many conservative voters take seriously.
Now, as I said, there are pros too. Maybe Palin will be a terrific candidate and vice president. But let’s not underestimate the potential downside.
David Frum:
Palin
The longer I think about it, the less well this selection sits with me. And I increasingly doubt that it will prove good politics. The Palin choice looks cynical. The wires are showing.
John McCain wanted a woman: good.
He wanted to keep conservatives and pro-lifers happy: naturally.
He wanted someone who looked young and dynamic: smart.
And he discovered that he could not reconcile all these imperatives with the stated goal of finding a running mate qualified to assume the duties of the presidency “on day one.”
Sarah Palin may well have concealed inner reservoirs of greatness. I hope so! But I’d guess that John McCain does not have a much better sense of who she is, what she believes, and the extent of her abilities than my enthusiastic friends over at the Corner. It’s a wild gamble, undertaken by our oldest ever first-time candidate for president in hopes of changing the board of this election campaign. Maybe it will work. But maybe (and at least as likely) it will reinforce a theme that I’d be pounding home if I were the Obama campaign: that it’s John McCain for all his white hair who represents the risky choice, while it is Barack Obama who offers cautious, steady, predictable governance.
Here’s I fear the worst harm that may be done by this selection. The McCain campaign’s slogan is “country first.” It’s a good slogan, and it aptly describes John McCain, one of the most self-sacrificing, gallant, and honorable men ever to seek the presidency.
But question: If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?
goldwaterconservative, your clear-headed viewpoint is why I am a registered independent. Email me anytime sir. You made the case I made in my post. McCain is supposed to be the wise, stable choice. This Palin pick is a hail mary. Its politically inspiring, but totally reckless. John McCain is 72. Ms Palin may find herself serving as President a la Harry Truman after FDRs last election. A VP pick is not as trite as we think.
Jshawn,
Your statement, ” Ms Palin may find herself serving as President a la Harry Truman after FDRs last election. A VP pick is not as trite as we think.”
Best I recall, Truman was criticized for not being experienced enough, but most folks would argue that he did pretty well.
Thanks for arguing the pro-Palin side.
I’d love to eat me some Bambi and Thumper!
Throw in some crab and calamari, and we’ve got surf n turf!
Cute.
BUT…
a) Interesting how you avoided comparing “McCain / Obama” scenarios.
b) Also noticed that your “Palin / Obama” comparison conveniently avoids any direct comparisons to the experience of Palin / Obama, instead choosing to focus on their hypothetical underlings.
I’ll take Palin making that call over Obama.
This was in reply to Dominick’s fairy tale.
Ryan,
I worry about you, son.
I’ve had two cataract surgeries, plus a detached retina surgery.
You confuse Harriet Myers with Sarah Palin?
Throw in some quail, and fish, and pheasent for this non repentant meat eater.