Legal Commentary

The blogs are abuzz with whether or not Palin ought to be regarded as sufficiently experienced to serve as VP. The typical defense of Palin's nomination emphasizes that she is the only one of the four nominees for Prez or veep with 'executive" experience, having served as a mayor of a small town and, briefly, as governor of a small state.

Naturally, opinions on the merits of Palin's candidacy correlate heavily with partisan prior commitments. But, as a federalism nut with weak partisan loyalties, I am much more interested in what Palin's nomination says about the structural protections for federalism in America. The argument that her experience trumps that of three Senators because it is "executive" in nature is, as a practical matter, an enormous boost to state politicians in the federal system, simply because there are obviously far more elected non-federal executives than federal ones. Thus, mayors and governors will gain an advantage over members of Congress in competing for the Presidency. If one buys the notion that these politicians will carry with them an affection for their old role as non-federal office-holder, then one might argue that the Presidency will tend to reflect state politicians' point of view.

The argument that executive experience is superior to legislative experience might even give mayors and governors an advantage over congress persons when running for congressional office. The reason is that executive experience tends to be less ideologically divisive than legislation. A chief executive can take credit for good economic performance in his or her state without alienating blues or reds; moreover, an executive can make lots of managerial micro-decisions that are not ideologically freighted and, thus, win a non-partisan reputation for competence: Think of Mayor Bloomberg's pressing for hybrid cabs or making the clean-up of the East River a top priority.

These are just theoretical speculations. As I have observed in an earlier post, the dominance of governors as candidates for the Presidency is a relatively recent affair, dating from Watergate, when claiming the mantle of an outside untainted by Washington's ways was an electoral advantage that boosted the candidacies of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bush II, and Bill Clinton. (By contrast, Truman, Ike, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon were all federal politicos or, in Ike's case, a federal bureaucrat). The Watergate-derived outsider's advantage might be waning. Therefore, I'll be curious to see how well the "executive experience" argument fares in Palin's campaign. Quite apart from its partisan ramifications, its success promises to be an aid to federalism. And nowadays I am inclined to think that federalism needs all the help that it can get.