The Tennessee ConserVOLiance

“I would rather live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University.” – William F. Buckley

It didn’t take 15 minutes after John McCain’s announcement of Sarah Palin as his running mate before she was being denounced as “lacking experience.” This provoked guffaws of course, especially when the issue is raised from the campaign of Barack Obama, who is less than four years into his first term as a United States Senator.

There are two kinds of experience in elected office, and they are radically different. On the one hand, are those who are elected as legislators. On the other are those who are elected as executives. It is a mistake to lump them together.

I would value much more highly any presidential candidate’s experience as an elected executive – city mayor, county mayor, governor – than any candidate’s experience as a legislator. The experience of a legislator is vastly different. A legislator acts officially only when his legislative body is in session. He (or she) usually has the leisure of time to ponder positions, background papers, and briefings with a great deal of advance notice before actually having to make a decision, take a position or cast a vote. Not so an elected executive. They must make hundreds of important decisions on a daily, weekly, monthly basis – and they rarely if ever have the luxury of time.

In fact, Sarah Palin is perhaps the BEST qualified of the four (Obama, Biden, McCain, Palin) to assume the duties of the presidency.

And don’t even get me started about how small Wasilla is… or the fact that Alaska has a population considerably less than a million. Have you looked up the census figures on Delaware? Delaware has three counties and ONE congressman. Being elected to the US Senate from Delaware is not much tougher than being elected to the state legislature in many other states.

Delaware has 1,954 square miles making it the 49^th smallest state. Anyone know how big Alaska is? Class? That’s right, Ferris. 656,525 square miles. Or roughly 335 times larger than Delaware.

Any other questions?

- Rob Shearer (aka RedHatRob)