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The Daily Dish - 2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan

Experience Again

By The Daily Dish
Aug 29 2008, 7:12 AM ET

A reader writes:

I don't see how you can rationally say that picking Palin is unserious but picking Obama is serious. Neither one has a ton of experience. But Palin’s experience is mostly executive, and Obama’s experience is all legislative.  That cuts in her favor.  Moreover, Palin is running for the #2 slot and Obama is running for the #1 slot.  That is fundamental.

It occurs to me that some on the right actually think that Obama is as inexperienced and as trivial a figure as Palin. So ask yourself: could Sarah Palin have run a national election campaign against, say, a machine as powerful as the Bush family, and won? Does she have the skill set to construct a campaign that would actually have brought her to the nomination herself? I find the comparison with Obama ludicrous. But it will be made. Palin looks to me like a lovely person and a good local politician, with some inevitable rough spots. I'd be delighted if she took a leadership role in the GOP in the future. But in the same league as Obama? Do Republicans really think that little of him?

I guess they do. We are looking at a different person.



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