Experience and Preparedness

The question of experience in this year’s presidential election has obviously become quite a bit more complicated in the last couple of days. The obvious narrative is that McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin (Tina Fey) completely undermines his “experience” argument. The McCain campaign can’t back off on experience, because that would expose how cynical the whole argument was to begin with. Thus, they’re left claiming that Palin’s less than two years as governor of Alaska are not only greater than Obama’s 8 years in state senate and 4 years in US senate, but so much greater that Obama is a risky choice, and Palin is ready to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

First, some good stuff. Palin has executive governmental experience, unlike any of the other candidates, and has shown an ability to fight through establishment and accomplish some anti-corruption goals. That’s a valuable skill, certainly, and fits well with McCain’s “maverick” theme.

McCain claims that we’re in a dangerously unstable world and in the midst of a battle for civilization against islamic terrorism. McCain plays this up in his fear ad:

Obama is “dangerously unprepared” to be president, according to the ad.

On this front, Obama is undoubtedly more qualified and experienced. He has served on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, as well as the Homeland Security committee, and was the chairman of the European Affairs subcommittee. He’s made trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa before his trip this Summer. Palin has also traveled a bit, visiting troops in Kuwait and Germany, though apparently she had to get a passport for that trip. According to Time, “It’s not clear what Palin thinks about foreign policy or many other national issues”. Obama has been talking on the record about his stance on foreign policy issues for years, showing not just where he’d like us to go, but also demonstrating the depth of his understanding.

Even more worrisome than undermining McCain’s experience argument is the undermining of his Country First theme. Obama’s first criteria for picking a VP, which he shared several times, was that the person should be ready to be President. That’s what it should be, as the main function of VP is to replace the President. McCain clearly picked someone who would help him get elected, not someone who would help govern or would be the best President.

It’ll be interesting to see how things look in a couple of weeks. There are clearly worse feasible picks than Palin, but early polling suggests that independents are less likely to vote for McCain with Palin on the ticket.