http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checke...connection.html

Thanks for that, Roman. It's sad to see there are as many non-stories and non-issues pushed forth about Obama as they are now doing to Palin.

wow. i am still undecided.

I did really like speach by SP.

Neither Palin nor Obama ready

By Daniel B. Kline 09/04/2008

By picking the wildly unqualified one-term governor of Alaska as his running mate, John McCain has put a giant spotlight on Barack Obama's own complete lack of qualifications to be president. Though the majority of the press has chosen to highlight Sarah Palin's inexperience and ignore Obama's, their resumes are similar.

One could actually argue that Palin's background prepares her slightly better for the White House should her ticket win and something befall John McCain. Both Palin and Obama have spent less than a full term in their current jobs and Obama has spent much of his time in office running for president.

It can also be argued that being a governor — a largely administrative job like the presidency — prepares you more for the big desk in the Oval Office. Obama does come from a more populous state, but it's not like being a first-term senator from Illinois gives you a lot of foreign policy experience.

I don't remember there being any treaties negotiated between the Chicago Cubs and North Korea anymore than I remember Alaska playing an important role in peace discussions in the Middle East. Realistically, neither Obama nor Palin has the experience to be president. Palin's presence in the race forces people to look at Obama's actual qualifications not the bright ideals he supposedly represents.

Palin got picked because she's a woman who by political standards is pretty. Though she has frighteningly rigid views on abortion, she's a mom with five kids who might help McCain pull in some wayward former Hillary Clinton voters. Everyone knows that her selection reeks of pandering, but that never seems to bother the people being pandered to.

Realistically Obama got nominated because he's charming and articulate. He speaks of grand ideas, at least in a vague way, and promises something different from what we have now. He offers no concrete details on how he might exact these changes, but he knows how to get a crowd going and he most certainly represents a major change from the Bush administration.

Clever speeches and buckets of idealism don't count as experience and Obama has a lot of the former, but nearly none of the latter. He'd make an excellent vice presidential candidate but his charisma and verbal skills put him on the big stage before he had actually accomplished enough to deserve to be there.

The mainstream media has chosen to ignore this, however, and has largely chosen to not question Obama's experience while spending days laughing at McCain's seemingly foolish pick. The Republican party understood what McCain was doing though and began hammering their nominee's point home for him.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and other McCain surrogates hit the talk shows last weekend and waited for the questions about Palin's lack of experience. When they came, and you had to know they were coming, they answered by comparing Palin's experience to Obama's.

Subtly unsaid was that Palin isn't running for president and would at least have some time to learn as vice president while Obama would immediately be leading the country. You can't possibly argue that Palin is ready to be president and if you cede that point than it's hard to argue the same can't be said of Obama.

I'm not eager for a McCain presidency and I question whether being a senator really prepares you for being president. Still, an experienced senator backed by an inexperienced governor simply presents a stronger ticket than one headed by a senator who masks his total lack of preparedness for the job by being really charming.

Talk about being a hypocrite:

"I think we've got to make the case that I'm ready, that I put my country first and it's time to put aside our partisan rancor and differences and work together for the country, and that I can create jobs and restore our economy and keep our country safe," - John McCain

This coming from a man/campaign that was the first to lob negative ads (at least here in Florida). How can this man continue to talk out both sides of his mouth and no one questions him on this? The media, IMHO, have given McCain a pass for the most part in fear of the Repubs crying about the "unfair media".

As far as the vote percentage issue, this is done in every election. The Repubs rolled it out in 2000 in comparing Gore to Clinton. Now it's only fair the same is done in describing the similiarities between McCain and Bush.

Wow, Jack... that was an interesting post. Lots of points there I hadn't yet thought about. The issues regarding Obama's experience versus Palin's experience, in addition to some of the lines in Palin's speech last night, do make me think about the type of work a governor does versus a state senator.

That kind of hit me this past weekend as I watched coverage of Hurricane Gustav blowing into Louisiana and press conferences held by Governor Bobby Jindal. He basically coordinated his state's efforts to evacuate, secure, and manage resources in areas affected by the hurricane. While obviously an extreme case, it certainly does highlight the type of executive role a governor plays -- they run the business of their state. I think that's a pretty weighty job. Being mayor of a small town isn't nearly as weighty... but she did it for 8 years. So technically she has been in politics at the local and state level since 1996, and for most of those 12 years, she HAS been the executive in charge of something. All of that obviously includes managing personnel, budgets, public policy, dealing with governing bodies, etc.

I'm not arguing that she is ready to be President of the United States, of course, and she hasn't been nominated to assume that role. But, by my estimation, Barack's comparative experience managing the affairs of the people does seem to be far less than Palin's. It is true that he has not managed personnel or balanced a budget. Now, as a state senator, he obviously has legislative experience -- but is it true that he has not authored a single piece of legislation? I can't seem to find anything to indicate that he has. He has "sponsored" over 130 bills or "cosponsored" more than 600, but only about half a dozen have actually passed. It seems many of those were what are termed as "vanity bills".

So, while I definitely question Palin's qualifications to be Chief Executive, I also realize she isn't running for that office. Obama is, however. And the research I have come up with so far indicates that he truly does have less executive experience than Palin. As for Biden and McCain... they don't need executive experience because they've been in Washington seemingly forever and know all three branches of government like the back of their hands. Biden and McCain are qualified to run the country. In fact, I would argue that it is Biden that should be the Democratic Presidential nominee with Obama as his Vice-Presidential running mate. In my mind, that would actually make for a strong Democratic ticket where "experience" matters. It would be a fair, even race then...

Everybody talks about how nobody gives specifics. But I remember so many people complaining about Gore because he ke couldn't shut up about issues.

about the type of work a governor does versus a state senator.

Being mayor of a small town isn't nearly as weighty... but she did it for 8 years. So technically she has been in politics at the local and state level since 1996, and for most of those 12 years, she HAS been the executive in charge of something. All of that obviously includes managing personnel, budgets, public policy, dealing with governing bodies, etc.

She left her 9,000 residents with a $20 million dollar debt.

AP: Attacks, Praise Stretch Truth At GOP Convention

JIM KUHNENN

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.

Some examples:

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform _ not even in the state senate."

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.

THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state _ by population.

MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.

THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right _ change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington _ throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."

THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

OK, totally off-topic: who dresses Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain?

OK, totally off-topic: who dresses Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain?

As far as I know, Michelle Obama gets her clothes off the rack.....which stores I don't know. I haven't heard anything about Cindy McCain except that she spends a nice chunk of change every month but it's her money so other than to point out that she can't relate to the average person income wise. there doesn't seem to be much of a point to that being mentioned in the media.

She left her 9,000 residents with a $20 million dollar debt.

Does this somehow discount the rest of the analysis concerning her level of executive experience versus Obama's?

She has also racked up a budget surplus for the state of Alaska as a whole. Big deal. I'm discussing work experience, not job performance evaluations. But if you want to compare achievements... Let me do more research and I'll see what I come up with.

She left her 9,000 residents with a $20 million dollar debt.

Thank you...this is the kind of qualitative experience I mean. People can dress up their resumes but the performance is what matters most.

It bothers me when Republicans want to point out problems with the Democrats but don't want to acknowledge the lies and half truths of their own party as if it's okay for them to lie too.

My first television introduction to the Clintons was them telling a lie about an affair. My first television introduction to Palin was her telling a lie about positions she's taken in the course of her job. Both created a bad first impression.

Until the Republican party is overhauled they have no business portraying themselves as the party of Lincoln since they are worlds apart. They really have no business showing video of Rosa Parks and knocking community organizers since that is how the civil rights movement was born.

Thanks for posting that AP article.

I saw Cindy once again say that she has foriegn policy experience becasue of where Alaska sits geographically to Russia. I just laugh every time I hear someone say this........one because this is the best they can come up with, and two they are repeating the same line Steve Doocy of Fixed News used earlier this week.

Until the Republican party is overhauled they have no business portraying themselves as the party of Lincoln since they are worlds apart. They really have no business showing video of Rosa Parks and knocking community organizers since that is how the civil rights movement was born.

They showed a video of Rosa Parks?

She was probably the only black person in the building!

I kid, I kid.

As far as I know, Michelle Obama gets her clothes off the rack.....which stores I don't know. I haven't heard anything about Cindy McCain except that she spends a nice chunk of change every month but it's her money so other than to point out that she can't relate to the average person income wise. there doesn't seem to be much of a point to that being mentioned in the media.

Thank you, Wales2004!