I haven’t seen a night like that since July 14 when the Texas Ranger’s Josh Hamilton hit 28 dingers in the home run derby at the All-Star game in Yankee Stadium. I mean, wow! I could spend several pages enumerating the high points of that speech, but I want to focus on the issue of experience.
Some might say the line of the night was when Governor Palin said; “I guess being the mayor of a small town is like being a community organizer; except you have actual responsibilities.” Great line and the first part of it is true. The second half, though, is not true and leaves her open to attacks (like the one David Plouffe, the Obama campaign manager, has already sent out this morning-after). The comment denigrates community organizers and volunteerism by association. What she should have said is, “….except you’re actually ACCOUNTABLE.” Now that statement IS true. Many community organizers have a laundry list of responsibilities. But the organizers are seldom the people ACCOUNTABLE, and accountability is the difference in the QUALITY of the experience that we should be talking about.
Many pundits, talking heads, commentators, citizens and village idiots are comparing the experience of Palin and Obama. We can admit that Obama has marginally more quantitative experience. He was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996, the same year Sarah Palin became Mayor of Wasilla. She left office in 2002 while Obama continued in the State Senate until he started work in the US Senate in January of 2005. He then spent roughly two years engaged in active legislation before deciding to run for president. Sarah Palin became governor of Alaska in 2006 and has governed for roughly two years before being selected as McCain’s VP.
The case the McCain campaign started to make last night and which it needs to make more often on behalf of Sarah Palin is that she has EXECUTIVE experience. She has been responsible AND accountable. The political offices she has held have made her the final arbiter in decisions on how to govern. She has had to choose. It’s been her name on the line. If government didn’t perform, the citizens were going to blame her; and that’s fair. She’s been IN CHARGE. Barack Obama has never had that type of experience. He’s been a “suggester,” (and not a prolific one, at that). This is also true of John McCain, in fact, and is why our nation hasn’t elected a Senator to the White House since 1960. When it comes to ACCOUNTABILITY, there is NO comparison. Sarah Palin has the better qualitative experience.
I thought Rudy Giuliani’s speech was an excellent prelude to Governor Palin’s. He spent several minutes regaling the experience of Senator Obama and how it is devoid of decisiveness. He pointed out that as a state senator, 130 times Obama voted “present.” He wouldn’t even decide “yes” or “no.” “It’s not good enough to be present, you have to make a decision,” Giuliani said. These are points the GOP needs to hammer home for the next 61 days. Giuliani recounted Obama’s ever-shifting thought process on the skirmish between Georgia and Russia—once again illuminating the Senator’s inability to formulate a position on his own and have it be worthy enough to stick with. (Give him credit, he knows when he’s talking trash and he’s willing to change his position, but that’s not really awe inspiring, is it?)
Instead, the most telling line of the night from Governor Palin was, “The American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of self discovery, ” and this is what Barack Obama has made it. He is just now learning to make decisions. He has said as much in the last few days when he has talked about how running this campaign (isn’t that done by his campaign manager?), with it’s large staff and huge budget, is his executive experience. This is all he has. Meanwhile, Governor Palin has overseen a $12 billion budget and 29,000 state employees in the largest state in the country, which also happens to be the only state that borders one of our country’s greatest adversaries—Russia.
But let’s now get to brass tacks: Obama has limited experience and NO executive experience, but Palin doesn’t have a lot of experience, either. Senator McCain, you picked her. Now live with it. The McCain campaign needs to turn this negative into a positive. America keeps saying it wants “change” and new blood in Washington DC. Well here it is. She’s an outsider. She’s not jaded by years of experience operating within the system. She has fresh ideas and is uncorrupted. She doesn’t have the putrid stench of Washington’s insider politics on her; she wears the fragrance of Alaska’s wide-open spaces. She is a breath of fresh air.
Let the democrats make your point for you, Senator McCain: every time they say “inexperienced” you translate that for America as “outsider.” Sarah Palin is a great choice for the McCain campaign precisely because of her experience….and lack of it.
As I thought about that later though, I don't feel that way at all. Honestly, I don't know how Disney delivers as much as they do for so little money. $60 for park admission seems high, yes. But look at the infrastructure, the options, the employees, the transportation. I can't believe they do it for as little as they do. Personally, I think it's a tremendous value and worth every penny I spent. 
But on the more important substantive issues, it was full of contradictions and misleading statements. He talked about being knocked down as a child and how his mother taught him to pick himself up. (Great lesson) Later, though, he lamented that at a time when so many Americans have been knocked down, Washington has done so little to help them get back up. (I thought, Senator, the point was to learn to pick YOURSELF up.)
He talked about how the most important aspect of work is that it provides the benefit of dignity and respect to Americans; but he then prattled on about how the work people have doesn't pay enough.
He talked about how tax breaks for corporations, which McCain supports, send jobs overseas. No, Joe, they don't. Tax breaks for corporations brings jobs home; companies have been sending jobs overseas because it already costs TOO MUCH to do business within the US.
He talked about a "promise that their tomorrow will be better than their yesterday." Who is making that promise, Senator? Only we can make our tomorrow better. Government can't and if government is promising that, and Americans want that, then this is the discussion that we should be having in America.
He quoted John McCain on Afghanistan from 3 years ago and Barack Obama on Afghanistan from 1 year ago. Why not break out a quote from McCain on Georgia from years ago and a quote from Obama on Georgia from last week?
Viewers of this speech who pay attention to his words, will not have been impressed with the content or the medium. 
However, the speech itself probably did little. She certainly had nothing to say that might sway Republicans to rethink their party affiliation. Furthermore, absent too were talking points that independents might find attractive. The speech seemed to have two purposes. First, convince her supporters to vote for Obama. But who else were they going to vote for? Those people involved enough in politics to be at or watch on tv the DNC convention are also likely to be people who will value their vote and not stay at home. Those who might elect not to vote at all, certainly were not in attendance and might well have been watching America's Got Talent and missed the speech completely.
Secondly, and more importantly to Mrs. Clinton, the speech was littered with reminders of why she should remain relevant in the Democratic Party. This was a "You Picked the Wrong Guy" speech.
Will we remember her or this speech in 4 or 8 years? I suspect not. The speech didn't brand itself with any tag lines that might survive the next few years. But it was a hell of an effort.
I believe not attending to these differences is the cause of the apparent divide in American thought. True conservatism (not that practiced by the Republicans) understands the importance of relationships between people and values those relationships over the individual. The whole is indeed greater than the sum of the parts. Liberal ideology seeks to raise the needs and desires of the individual above the collective good. This is where the Libertarians lose most Americans. Intuitively, Americans sense the error of the "my liberty is more important than the collective good" ethos and shun the movement. Neither the modern Democratic Party nor the Republican Party has found a way to tap into the American belief in Freedom while simultaneously bonding us to society. This is the time for Democratic and Republican ideologies to be replaced by less "me" centered thinking and our nation should return to its ideological roots, which means that we understand our obligation to each other to value and defend each other's freedom, not just our own.
The Democratic support that the super delegates are so keen on being a part of should be viewed as something of a mirage. What would the delegate count be if the events of the last month had taken place in December? Would Obama have as much support as he does now? Would he be the presumed candidate? And yet the Obama of today is the one the Democrats are likely to insist represents their party. The Obama that sees middle America as "clingers," the Obama that wouldn't repudiate Wright but is now quite right to repudiate, this is the Obama that will face McCain in November. For a party as down on America as this one, an Obama nomination seems awfully optimistic. Perhaps, it's not just Michigan and Florida that need a do-over: perhaps the Democrats ought to have a national do-over.
Sure he's liberal. Liberal we can handle. Heck even socialist we can handle. We have systems in place to deal with presidential initiatives which we ultimately don't approve of. But relinquishing any control to any kind of world organization is very troubling. Being outside of our borders and constitution, we could find ourselves subject to a body we don't agree with and yet have few ways to get out from under its jurisdiction. This is a slippery slope. I fear Obama's need to be liked and validated will prompt him to try to enter the U.S. into many global initiatives.
Hillary, despite her belief that her ascension has been preordained, has a low ceiling and a high floor. Obama continues to manifest himself as a divisive candidate, creating his own new voting demographic within his party, one that surely will never be as influential as, say, the evangelicals have been for the GOP. It is no wonder that Clinton supporters would sooner vote for McCain, the two have significantly more in common and, to their credit, Clinton supporters can see through the audacity of hype. The sad fact for the democrats is that these two represented the best the Democrats had to offer. Perhaps it is a tacit admission of poor policy that the Democrats chose two candidates who are best known for their celebrity status and not their policies or experience. If the policy postulates of the democrats had more merit, a "celebrity" wouldn't have be needed to endorse those policies.
I'm afraid I just don't believe that her feelings are the result of poorly timed contemplation. My understanding is that the family was present for the photo shoot and got to see the picture in advance. They liked it and moved on. NOW all of a sudden Miley is embarrassed? These are smart people familiar with the media. I, of course, have no inside information, this is just my opinion, but it would appear she wants to have her cake and eat it too: do the photo shoot (be edgy, become known to new demographics) and then make a heartfelt apology to appease the core fan group.
Is Obama smart enough to see the error of his proposal to meet with such foreign leaders? Probably not. Too impressed with his own palaver, he'll stand by his words. But can McCain and the GOP make the same connection and exploit Carter's follies as empirical evidence that they were correct in postulating what such visits from US dignitaries would bring about?
His words address the inherently conservative values (not republican--conservative) most Americans believe in. But he also points out that while we believe in them, we don't LIVE them. His article can be, and should be, a call for personal change. It will be an exciting read for the number of times you exclaim (too loudly for those sipping coffee nearby) "Yes!" Although, if I'm honest, it is depressing on a national scale because I know most Americans act on their immediate desires and not on the values they hold most sacred. But, in the end, change starts at home.
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This is the first time in history has there ever been a vice president pick who is a woman that have more political and executive experiences than the presidential nominee of the opposing party! Ever! And yet people use the “one heart beat away” for Palin did they not even ever consider that “O”bama is one vote away from being president. And yet people are comparing a presidential nominee to a vice president?
Hey Drexel – I was wondering when my friend was going to be back. Awesome article with great insight. I will be cross-linking it to my blog.