Posted by
Crispian on Friday, August 29, 2008 6:26:01 PM
Right out of the gate, the Obama campaign criticized Sarah Palin for being a "former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.” Commentators argue that this takes the "experience issue" off the table. They have all gotten so lost in the debate that they have forgotten what experience means. It is not a mere abstraction - something any candidate has to have lots of - it is both a test for comparing two candidates and a means for examining a candidate's judgment in light of the challenges he (or she!) has faced.
On the first basis, nothing has changed. John McCain is still more experienced than Barack Obama - in dealing with legislative matters and domestic and foreign concerns.
On the second basis (of illustrating judgment), John McCain has shown himself to be committed to his principles (some would say stubborn) as when he opposes drilling for oil in Alaska out of concern for the environment. He has shown himself to be independent, willing to oppose his party on issues where he holds firm to such principles. He has also shown himself to be willing to join with members of the opposing party in order to preserve the integrity of our government while still accomplishing his goals - as he did in order to have Justices Roberts and Alito confirmed without resorting to a "nuclear option" that would have allowed a Democrat-controlled Senate to push through far-left Supreme Court nominees in the future. There is also, of course, the way he handled himself while a prisoner for five years in Vietnam. In the context of judgment, that is not something to be ignored or minimalized.
Barack Obama's experience, unfortunately, does not offer any remarkable examples of good judgement. As a person he is impressive - having worked his way up in the world, graduated from Harvard, worked to remedy concerns in Chicago neighborhoods, and elected to a state legislature and then the U.S. Senate. It's a good story but we're still all waiting for more specific and notable examples of judgement that make him competent to bring about the kind of change he promises. We have learned that he voted "present" almost 130 times while in the Illinois Senate. This provides political cover for sensitive issues. But it doesn't show that Obama stood out from normal politics. When asked about his accomplishments and how he has reached across party aisles, Obama sounds like any job candidate trying his best to pad his resume. He just wants the resume to speak for itself - for "change" to be self-proclaiming.
Unfortunately, voters are asking for more. The specificity they desire is not the usual Democratic laundry list Obama offered in his acceptance speech - we've heard it all before. At the start of his campaign, Obama offered a break from the old politics, he spoke in generalities that suggested he would be a moderate leader who would follow common sense policies. His record as a legislator has been the exact opposite. There has been a bait and switch in which an agenda of post-partisanship has been replaced with liberalism. The specificity voters want is undeliverable - they want to know specifically why Obama is the One suited to bring change.
Now that McCain has chosen Sarah Palin to be his vice president, experience is still on the table. Palin does have limited experience in government, having served on a city council, as a mayor, served as president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors, and now as governor of Alaska for the past two years. She doesn't have Washington, D.C. experience. Alaska is bounded by Canada and Russia and she probably has knowledge of foreign affairs based on the sort of regular interactions that occur there, but not at the level of an seasoned D.C. expert like Joe Biden. This only highlights Obama's comparable lack of experience, however.
We have learned some of the ways that Palin has applied her judgment - raising 5 kids while lowering taxes, fighting corruption, rejecting the spending of federal money for pork-barrel projects, and focusing on building an infrastructure to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Her experience may be limited but it is also very promising.
The Obama campaign is tragically missing the point if they think "experience" is off the table. If Obama tries to diminish Palin's accomplishments, speaking of her as just a mother who became mayor of a small town or governor of an unimportant state, McCain need only reply, "I don't think he's sexist. I think he's cynical."