August 29, 2008

• Unfortunately, I have already observed a number of instances in which pundits have lazily accepted the notion that Sarah Palin's foreign policy experience is comparable to that of Barack Obama's experience. This is simply not true.
  
  There's a huge difference between some experience and zero experience. Barack Obama has spent four years on the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, where he worked on arguably the most potentially dire national security issue facing the world, working with Richard Lugar to pass the Lugar-Obama nonproliferation initiative to secure loose nuclear weapons.
  
  In contrast, not only does Sarah Palin have practically no foreign policy experience, she recently admitted that she had not been focused on the war in Iraq.

  Part of being qualified for office is not mere political experience but the time spent planning and thinking about issues, combined with vision and intellect. People like Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan lacked official experience in one way or another -- but they had time to plan and think about what kind of presidency they wanted to have. Likewise, Barack Obama has spent a long time thinking about the issues facing the nation, and what he plans to accomplish in the presidency. He has also served eight years in the State Senate of Illinois, a large state facing a diverse set of issues, and four years in the U.S. Senate, including on the Foreign Relations Committee. He is ready.

  Meanwhile Sarah Palin most likely genuinely didn't have any expectation to be selected vice president. I seriously question whether she has spent a serious amount of time thinking about the many complex issues facing America. The fact she has admitted that she hasn't spent much time thinking about the war in Iraq is troubling. Furthermore, the issues facing Alaska (population: 670,000) are very distinct and relatively narrow, and not generally translatable to the nation as a whole.

  • 8:33 pm
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