He chose a White Woman

[croushorn]

>> Joe Biden but at least I believe he has enough experience to draw upon that he wouldn't be in way over his head if something happened and he had to step into the job.

[SSScout]

Speaking of unknown, inexperienced VPs,

Howbout that Harry Truman?? Uh Huh Uh???

[Lisabob]

ursus I never said Biden has executive experience. Neither do Obama and McCain for that matter. What Biden does have is 36 years of Senate experience, including long service on the Senate Foreign Relations committee. Whether one likes Biden's viewpoints or not, I think it could be agreed upon that 36 years of national government service, much of it in extremely important committee assignments, translates into more than a passing acquaintance with the issues that the country might face.

 

 

 

 

[hops_scout]

Ok Lisa another question for you. You mention Biden having been in the US Senate for 35 years.. how does that go together with Obama's campaign about "change?"

[Lisabob]

hops,

 

about the same as McCain's choice of Palin goes with his continual hammering on the need for "experience."

 

 

(honestly? I think it is pretty tough to sell Biden as a "change" candidate. And Obama probably won't do that either. He'll continue to promote himself as the candidate for change, with seasoned supporters like Biden as simply back-up. If Obama is smart he will point out that Biden is not the one setting the course and so you can have both "change" and "experience" in one ticket. Now he could theoretically say Biden's a maverick in his own right and I think that's true to some extent - he doesn't act like a typical Senator in many regards. But my feeling is that Obama picked him to be an adviser and to shore up Obama's weakest areas - foreign policy and ability to get things done in the convoluted Washington beltway world. And on those, one must admit, Biden is quite a capable individual.)

 

 

[elfdream]

Palin must have some tiny bit of foreign experience. After all her state is located between Canada and Russia.

 

Yes..I'm being facetious.

 

 

 

 

[pixiewife]

 

Obama:

B.A in political science from Columbia University, with a specialization in international relations

J.D. in Law from Hardvard, graduated magna cum laude; President of the Harvard Law Review

12 years (92-04) teaching constitutional law

7 years State Senator: sponsored more than 800 bills

4 years Senator for Illinos, a state with 12.8 million people

 

Palin:

Bachelor's in journalism from University of Idaho

4 years Wasilla City Council (8000 people)

6 years Wasilla mayor (8000 people)

1 year "Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission"

20 months governor of a state with 660,000 people

 

[croushorn]

I love it that Libs are frantically comparing Palin to Obama. Wow, comparing the Vp candidate to the Presidential candidate. How worried are you? Shes one sharp lady.

[pixiewife]

ooopppsss....

Sorry, I meant to post this in the 'experiance' thread, but I had too many windows open to keep them strait.

Aside from that, there is the fact that I was watching Palin at the RNC at the time, and all SHE could talk about was her experience vs. Obama. Maybe she is predicting the demise of her elderly running mate, although I certainly hope not.

[gwd-scouter]

The republicans are doing quite a lot of comparing Palin to Obama. What I haven't heard yet is any comparison of Palin to Biden. Wouldn't that be a more accurate focus of comparison?

 

I watched her speech last night. Obviously articulate and cares about her family. Also obvious that she would go negative on Obama, but I could have done without the sarcasm.

[evmori]

pixiewife,

 

Nice stats about the candidates. One thing, though, Palin isn't running for president. Obama is.

[pixiewife]

Evmori~

Please refer to my post just after the stat post. She herself spent a good deal of time in her GOP talking points, oh, I mean speech, last night comparing herself to Obama. As does a good deal of republicans. Maybe this is because the biggest thing they had 'against' Obama was the perceived lack of experience, and now they feel that election to City Council and Mayor of a TINY town is "Executive" experience that far out ways Obamas knowledge and experience.

Hey, maybe it does.

[BrentAllen]

Sarah Palin had to do three things last night:

 

1. Introduce herself to the American people, let them get to know her and decide if they like her.

 

2. Show she can handle the spotlight, the big stage.

 

3. Rally the base, get them excited about her.

 

By my count, she went 3 for 3. She even had Wolf Blitzer and the gang at CNN drooling over her! He went so far as to say she not only hit a homerun, she hit a grand slam!

 

Watching the Dems on Larry King respond was pure entertainment. They were having a cow over the "Hottest VP from the Coldest State" buttons. As was said several times last night, "Game On!"

[Lisabob]

Brent, I agree that she needed to, and did, introduce herself, handle the spotlight, and rally the base. Most of the time that is about all that should be expected from any VP speech at any convention. Biden did much the same thing a week ago at the Dem convention too.

 

Where I think things will be interesting is when she has to talk off-script on issues. I'm not surprised that, as a former sports journalist, she can handle a TV appearance. I agree she delivered the speech pretty well. She can probably use a teleprompter better than McCain, too ().

 

What I want to know is, what does she actually know, how does she think on her feet, and what are her true beliefs (as opposed to what some speech writer scripted for her). To answer those questions, which I think are fair of ANY VP from ANY party, we'll have to wait a bit longer. The VP debate and appearances on serious news programs where she is asked to explain her stance on issues in greater depth, will be most interesting there.

 

Also, given the nature of her speech last night (lots of attacks), I don't think Republicans are in a place to complain at this point, if Dems go after her now. (With agreement that they really ought to leave her kids out of it.) If you dish it out you'd better be willing to take it too. National politics is a rough and tumble game.

 

[Eagledad]

>>What I want to know is, what does she actually know, how does she think on her feet, and what are her true beliefs (as opposed to what some speech writer scripted for her).