COMPARE THE TWO: PALIN & OBAMA

Tuesday evening at the RNC MSNBC reporter Ron Allen said to the former Speaker Newt Gingrich of Sarah Palin, "But to be fair, her resume is not something we're familiar seeing with presidential candidates." This question goes along with the Old-Fashioned Media Meme of Sarah Palin is not qualified to be Vice President. The question didn't sit well with Gingrich who strongly replied:

“It's stronger than Barack Obama's. I don't know why you guys walk around saying this baloney. She has a stronger resume than Obama. She's been a real mayor, he hasn't. She has been a real governor, he hasn't. She's been in charge of the Alaskan National Guard, he hasn't. She was a whistleblower who defeated an incumbent mayor. He has never once shown that kind of courage. She's a whistleblower who turned in the chairman of her own party and got him fined $12,000. I've never seen Obama do one thing like that. She took on the incumbent governor of her own party and beat him, and then she beat a former Democratic governor in the general election. I don't know of a single thing Obama's done except talk and write. Newt then challenged Allen: “I'd like you to tell me one thing Sen. Obama's done.” Silence. Change the subject, move along, nothing to see here, move along.

But let’s look at this a little deeper, shall we. The Presidency is the office of the Chief Executive of the United States. Note: That is not the Office of the Chief Speechmaker, nor Chief Legislator, nor Chief Community Organizer, nor Chief Campaign figure head. The Chief Executive is charged with the responsibility of actually running things. The Chief Executive is in charge of not only National Defense, but also has to deal with personnel issues, hiring and firing of employees. The Chief Executive more importantly has to deal with a Budget and taxes and balancing a budget.

When asked about Palin’s experience, Obama smiled and said Palin's town of Wasilia, Alaska had 50 employees. His campaign has 2500. The town's budget is about $12 million a year. His budget is 3 times that per month. He cited the legislation he's passed on emergency management post-Katrina and that many recommendations he made were adopted and are being put in place as we speak. (Note: He signed on to Bills drafted by other Senators never once authoring his own.)

It's true that Obama's biggest accomplishment is his success (thus far) in running a Presidential campaign. But isn't this a bit absurd? One qualifies to run for President by the very activity of running for President? I'm glad to hear that he smiled when he said that, because I don't think it's an argument you can make with a straight face.

Why is Obama comparing her experience in running a small town to his of running for president, when what she's been doing for the last two years is running the state of Alaska, which has a lot more employees and a much larger budget than his presidential campaign.

Obama is making a false comparison. His 2500 staff against her 8 years as mayor.Compare his 2500 staff against her 25,000 state employees!Then factor in that he doesn’t run the campaign. He's the talking head. Axlerod runs the campaign. David Axlerod is pulling the strings over at Team Obama. Why is Obama even taking credit for running his campaign? Obama is just the titular head of a machine. Then note that getting 2500 fanatics to move in the same direction is different than applying leadership skills to get 25,000 civil servants, many of whom didn’t vote for you, to work productively. Lastly of course, he's not running for VP is he?

So lets do some Staff, Budget, and Executive Decision-making comparisons.

1994-1996 Palin: Mayor, staff of 50 Budget of $12 million. Executive decisions concerning personnel, budgeting, taxes, public utilities, public relations, managing a city council and working with the Police Force and Fire Department.

1994-1996 Obama: Part time law professor and community organizer. No staff no budget. No executive decision-making. (Strike that: he had to decide what to wear every day). (Strike that: Michelle probably did that for him).

1996-2002 Palin: Mayor - staff of 50, budget of $12 million. Executive decisions concerning personnel, budgeting, taxes, public utilities, public relations, managing a city council and working with the Police Force and Fire Department.

1996-2002 Obama: State Senate - staff of ? less than 5, budget of what, maybe a few thousand dollars. Executive decision-making minimal to nil.

2003-2004 Palin: Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission, staff of 25, budget of $5 million. Executive decision-making responsibilities all day long. Took on Big-Oil and won!

2003-2004 Obama: State Senate - staff of ? less than 5, budget of what, maybe a few thousand dollars. Executive decision-making minimal to nil.

2005-2006 Obama: U.S. Senate office, staff of maybe 50. Budget minimal – maybe a few hundred thousand at most, executive decision-making minimal to nil. Major goal: positioning to run for President.

2005-2006 Palin: running for governor, assume very little staff. Taking on the Chairman of her own party and getting him fined $12,000. Taking on the sitting Governor from her own party and beating him in the primary. Taking on a former Governor from the other party and beating him in the general election.

2007-2008 Palin: Governor of Alaska, America’s Number 1 energy producing State with borders with Russia and Canada. Staff of 25,000, budget of $12 billion. Executive decision-making all day long. Negotiated natural gas pipeline deal with Canada. Squashed the Bridge to Nowhere project. Cut taxes and refunded taxes to citizens. Has the highest approval rating of any sitting Governor in all fifty (50) United States.

2007-2008 Obama: Running for President, staff of 2,500 (many unpaid). Budget of what, say 350 million – 400 million tops? Executive decision-making – do what Axlerod tells him to do. Review and edit speeches prepared by others. Deliver speeches. Avoid debates. Throw people under the bus. Change positions on almost every major issue.

Let’s see, 25,000 employees, including the National Guard v.s. 2,500 fanatically loyal campaign workers. Hmmmm. Budget of 12 Billion v.s. budget of 350-400 million. Hmmmm. Total and complete Executive decision-making experience v.s. making speeches. Hmmmm. Taking on entrenched politicos from your own party no less and defeating them v.s. pandering to your own party’s left-wing extreme elements. Hmmm. Oh yeah and I almost forgot, Obama didn’t think the surge was a good idea, nor that it would work. In fact, he said it would make things worse. Yet, despite its overwhelming success, he would still oppose it rather than admit that he was wrong.

What a putz.

As shown above, since 1992 in every moment of time by direct comparison, Palin's responsibilities and executive experience are far, far greater than Obama's. It is not even close.

That is a fact. So come on Old-fashioned Media, keep harping on the Meme of Experience. Our V.P. candidate has more executive experience that your Presidential candidate.

One last thing: Palin was asked: What’s the difference between a Hockey Mom and a Pit-bull? Her response: Hockey Moms wear lipstick. I lover her! She is a real salt-of-the-earth woman who loves America, Jesus, Babies, Guns and Energy Independence.

As I’ve said before, McCain-Palin in a landslide, a landslide. And the Old-Fashioned Media will be the most depressed people on the face of the earth come the evening of November 4th. Their bias will become even more clear (if that’s possible after the last 5 days) and they will blame it all on racism. When clearly, as evidenced above, the outcome will be based upon experience, (and Obama’s lack thereof) plain and simple.