| BenKenobi88 said: I don't know why anti-Palin gets grouped with ultra-liberals though...there's even the most conservative Republicans who agree that Palin is way inexperienced. |
Because a large segment of the ultra-liberals are in that anti-Palin group...partisanship demands it.
The folks who just disagree with her views aren't really anti-Palin anyways though since her views are just conservative views. I disagree with many of her views but I'm certainly not anti-Palin, on the contrary I think she is a breath of fresh air..but then I've actually done my homework on her, Biden, Obama, and McCain (most folks don't even read the wikipedia entries, which I consider a bare basic minimum). The anti-palin crowd has more to do with the folks who want to discredit her through whatever means possible.
For instance on the experience issue you brought up, when you get down to it the position many liberals take is actually pretty irrational. Ignoring the facts (which do favor Palin), I have to point out that the idea that we are even making the comparison speaks ill of Obama because of the disparity between their positions on the ticket. When we have to have a public debate about whether he is more or less qualified for president than the other ticket's VP nominee that is a perception problem for him, whether it is true or not. To make my point on the perception issue (Source AP):
| In your opinion, please tell me whether you think each of the following candidates does or does not have the right type of experience to successfully serve as President of the United States. If you don’t know enough about the person, just let me know. [emphasis added by Sqrl] |
||||
| Does Have Right Type |
Does not have right type |
Don't Know Enough |
Don't Know |
|
| McCain | 80 | 15 | 5 | * |
| Palin | 41 | 36 | 23 | 1 |
| Obama | 46 | 47 | 7 | 1 |
| Biden | 58 | 20 | 21 | 1 |
Notice how many undecided folks there are for Palin and yet she os only 5% behind Obama. If she gets even a quarter of here undecideds she is tied with him. And Obama has an 11 point lead in the negative response. The problem? This poll is for president..and she is only running for VP.
But as I said the facts back her up as well. While Obama may have more experience practicing law or working within the legistlature he does not have the executive experience she does. Things like budgeting, executive appointments, working with the legislature from the executive perspective, CoF duties, veto strategy, etc...
Now folks like to bring up the size of her state and thats all well and good but its really only relevant if Obama had some sort of experience of his own to compare it to (which he does but he doesn't want to talk about the CAC). The idea that her experience of a relatively low population is somehow trumped by his non-experience is a non-sequitur. The arguments about the mistakes she has made in office is as well because those are exactly the types of learning experiences that Obama needs to have, it highlights the very problem he has..and that is that you can't just jump into the executive office and run it flawlessly, you're going to make mistakes and is the very reason the office of Governor is looked at like a sort of growth tank for presidential candidates.
I'm not taking the position that it is unreasonable to doubt her qualifications, I think it is reasonable and I have myself (hence the research). My position is that it is unreasonable to doubt her qualifications without also doubting Obama's because not only does he factually and demonstrably have less but he is also running for a far more demanding position.
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| To Each Man, Responsibility |
