"I have had a strong and a long relationship on national security, I've been involved in every national crisis that this nation has faced since Beirut, I understand the issues, I understand and appreciate the enormity of the challenge we face from radical Islamic extremism," the Senator [John McCain, in a late 2007 Republican primary debate] declared. "I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time."
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Fast-forward nearly a year, and the argument McCain made back then is being used against his vice presidential pick today. Only Sarah Palin held the post of mayor of Wasilla for less time than Rudy Giuliani headed New York City. And her gubernatorial stint in Alaska is shorter than that of Mitt Romney's in Massachusetts.
Not to mention New York City and Massachusetts actually have people...most boroughs in NYC are larger in population than Alaska, and the NYPD is about 10 times larger than the Alaska National Guard. Her CinC duties since being governor have largely been delegated (and when the Guard is called into Federal service, i.e. to Iraq, the governor is not in command, that duty shifts to the President).
So McCain is a flip-flopper on this issue, too. Maybe he was also for the "Bridge to Nowhere" before he was against it...
And yet, for critics, Palin's interview with ABC on Thursday evening was an apt demonstration of the criticisms McCain raised about mayors and governors back in October. In her first interview since being tapped as McCain's vice president, Palin showed, in some respects, the limitations of her foreign policy capacity. Time's Joe Klein wrote, "A joke... This woman clearly has no idea what she's talking about. What an embarrassment." Unable to define the Bush Doctrine and contradicting McCain on Pakistan, she acknowledged that she had only visited a handful of countries and never met with another world leader. Then, it was her turn to ridicule the lengthy Washington resume that defines McCain.
"Charlie, again, we've got to remember what the desire is in this nation at this time," she said to the ABC host. "It is for no more politics as usual and somebody's big, fat resume maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment, where, yes, they've had opportunities to meet heads of state."
Remembering (as the right's darling Karl Rove pointed out) that Obama is running against McCain (not Palin), it's clear that Sarah Palin even made the case FOR Obama. The statements in bold say it...there is only one candidate for President who represents that kind of non-Washington establishment change, only one that isn't a "politics as usual" type running on a long-time "fat resume maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment". It's NOT John McCain. Sarah Palin's own statements indicate that Barack Obama is the clear choice, since she argues AGAINST the very thing that John McCain is...Washington establishment.
Technorati Tags: Politics, McCain-Palin, No Change, No Experience
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