Legal Commentary

Comparing Palin and Obama based on their respective experience in political campaigns

By Beldar

Since the announcement of Sarah Palin as John McCain's choice for the GOP vice presidential nomination, the Obama camp has been stressing that his experience is superior to Gov. Palin's on grounds that he's been trained and tested through his presidential campaign. That counts as a substitute, they argue, for experience and accomplishments in office.

I reject the premise. Past experience campaigning may contribute to being a better campaigner, but it says less than actual experience and accomplishments in office about fitness for further office.

But let's indulge the Obama advocates for a bit, and compare the cumulative campaign experience of Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. What we'll find is this:

Obama and Palin have almost identical amounts of campaign experience. Palin has actually run in more total campaigns, including one more state-wide election, than Obama, and more of her campaigns have been hotly contested. By election day, Obama will have had about ten or eleven full months of serious national campaign experience, as compared to her two.

Full post as published by BeldarBlog on September 01, 2008 (boomark / email).