liberateamerica888

Because of all of the chatter in the political sphere about Sarah Palin and Barack Obama's lack of experience, I was interested to see what the prevailing consensus was: who has less experience? I know that Palin is running for VP, and Obama is running for president, but it would still be an interesting comparison.

Here are their resumes:
PALIN:
GOV'T EXPERIENCE: Alaska governor since December 2006; unsuccessful run for Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in 2002; chairwoman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, 2003-2004; served two terms as Wasilla mayor and two terms on city council.
EDUCATION: Graduated University of Idaho, 1987, journalism.
BUSINESS: Worked as sports reporter for two Anchorage television stations; owned with her husband a snowmobile, watercraft, ATV business from 1994-97.

OBAMA:
EDUCATION:
Undergraduate: Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA; Undergraduate, 1981-1983 Columbia University (B.A. Political Science with specialization in international relations; Thesis topic: Soviet nuclear disarmament)
Graduate: Harvard Law School; J.D. magna cum laude 1988-1991; President, Harvard Law Review
Organizing and other work experience:
1983-1984 Writer/Researcher for Business International Corporation. Helped companies understand overseas markets in the “Financing Foreign Operations” service and wrote for the “Business International Money Report”
1984-1985 Community Organizer for New York Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), promoting personal, community, and government reform at City College in Harlem.
1985-1988 Director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland on Chicago's South Side. While director grew the DCP staff from 1 to 13 and their budget from $70,000 to $400,000.
1992 Led Chicago's Project Vote! push. This effort resulted in a record number of voter registrations, over 600,000 in Chicago. 1)
Teaching:
1993-2004 Visiting Law and Government Fellow, then Senior Lecturer, in Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago Law School. Taught courses on the due process and equal protection areas of constitutional law, on voting rights, and on racism and law. Helped develop a casebook on voting rights.
Law Practice:
1993-2002 Worked as an associate attorney with Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland. Represented non-profits and private individuals in urban development projects, voting rights cases, and wrongful firings. Filed major suit that forced the state of Illinois to enforce the Motor Voter Law and successfully argued a wrongful firing case before the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Illinois Senate 1996-2004:
Chairman, Health and Human Services Committee
Spearheaded a successful bipartisan effort in Illinois to pass the broadest ethics-reform legislation in 25 years, and gained bipartisan support for his successful bills reforming death penalty interrogations and ending racial profiling by police. Worked with the Republican-led effort to reform welfare.
Also sponsored successful bills expanding tax credits and child-care subsidies for low-income working families, protecting overtime pay for workers, expanding health care for children, and providing job skills training for juveniles.
New York Times chart on Obama's legislative record in the Illinois Senate: The New York Times > U.S. > Image > Obama’s Record in the Illinois Senate

United States Senate 2004-present Sworn in 1/4/2005:
Member, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on European Affairs
Member, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Member, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Member, Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Shares responsibility for the bipartisan Coburn-Obama Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, requiring full online disclosure of all entities receiving federal funds, and the bipartisan Lugar-Obama Cooperative Proliferation Detection, Interdiction Assistance, and Conventional Threat Reduction Act of 2006, deepening non-proliferation work with WMD and including surface-to-air missiles, land mines, and other weapons that may be used by terrorists. Also worked with Coburn to end the abuse of no-bid contracts in the wake of disasters.
Sponsored Bill Statistics
Number of sponsored bills: 70
Number of sponsored bills passed: 2
Number of co-sponsored bills: 404
Number of co-sponsored bills passed: 8

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liberateamerica888

Though I may be biased, I feel that, honestly evaluating the situation, Palin has less experience that would justify her for the position she is running for (VP). Though much has been made of the fact that Obama has only been in the US Senate for what will be 3 yrs, he was in the Illinois state legislature beforehand and is versed in constitutional law. Furthermore, he has shown the capacity to lead and has sufficient education for the job of president. His community organizing experience, while belittled by the RNC, showed that he was willing to actually work on the ground and fight for what was right. A journey of a thousand miles does begin with a single step, after all.

P/N

Executive experience (i.e. the jobs they are running for) - Palin has more experience than Obama. Any argument otherwise is pointless. Experience in government - Obama has more experience.

IMO, neither are experienced enough to be President. The difference is that Palin is not running for President and Obama is. So sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

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1069

Palin has more executive experience than McCain. Is McCain not "experienced enough to be president"?
Should Palin maybe be at the top of the ticket because of her six months or whatever as mayor of Moose-splat, Alaska, pop. 250?

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P/N

Hey Asshat of the Year, try sticking to the topic. The question was regarding Obama and Palin. I responded to the question. And this may be a breaking news flash for you, but being Governor constitutes an executive position too.

Cilogy

IMO, no one truly has experience to be the president. Palin seems to have less experience with less issues and less people than Obama's constituency.

I think its about judgement, Obama has proven nationally that he has had good judgement. I'm Palin would make a wonderful VP, but many people didn't know about her, and I'm not sure about her judgement factor, I just don't know anything about it.

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1069

I thought just to be polite and give the Republicans a fighting chance, it would be nice to just gloss over that two months or so, since she apparently spent it engaged in scandalous and illegal antics and pursuing personal vendettas.
Do you really want to count that "executive experience"?
I wouldn't advertise it, if I were y'all.

P/N

What two months are you referring to? Do you mean the past 2 years?

I find it hilarious that you are attacking Palin when Obama has plenty to be embarrassed about from his past.

TurtleDude

IF Palin were to become president it most likely would be after holding the office of VP which is far more experience than anything Obambo would have done if he were to become president. You dems keep comparing Obama against the GOP VP rather than the GOP #1 who clearly has 10 times the experience Obama has-both in the federal government and real life.

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Cilogy

That's because people keep bringing up the issue that Palin and Obama should be compared at the same level.

You're right, no one talks about Obama vs. McCain anymore.