In defending McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin for Vice President of the United States, and in comparing her to Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama, Republicans continue to claim that Palin is much more qualified and much better prepared to be Vice President because of her superior “executive” experience. They also pooh-pooh Barack Obama’s legislative experience both as an Illinois State Senator and as a U.S. Senator.
Well, if “executive experience” is the key for a position a heartbeat away from the President of the United States, let’s compare Palin’s executive experience to that of her mentor, John McCain:
First, Sarah Palin’s “executive experience”:
* Four years as Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska
* 18 months as Governor of Alaska
Now, John McCain’s “executive experience”
* One year as commanding officer of a training squadron in Florida.
The former POW, fighter pilot, and hero, then went on to serve meritoriously as the Navy’s liaison to the U.S. Senate. Of this assignment, McCain has said that it represented his “real entry into the world of politics and the beginning of my second career as a public servant” Not much “executive experience” here.
After retiring from the Navy in 1981, John McCain went to work for his new father-in-law’s Anheuser Busch as Vice President of Public Relations at the beer distributorship. Not much “executive experience” there—except perhaps for preparing him to veto every beer that comes across his desk…
The next year he started pursuing his political career, one that now encompasses a total of almost 16 years of that dreaded, disqualifying, inside-the-beltway, non-executive, legislative experience, of which Barack Obama luckily doesn’t have quite four years yet.
Well, given Sarah Palin’s overwhelming “executive experience,” given her lack of that disqualifying Washington legislative experience, given her overwhelming “juniority” over John McCain, and given so many other superb qualities and qualifications attributed to her by Republicans, why isn’t she the Republican Presidential candidate?
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.