A reader writes:
I’m a Senator McCain supporter because I’m a conservative who can’t bring myself to vote for a liberal who will increase the size of government, raise taxes during a down economy, and give the Democrats complete control of Washington. My second tier reason is the huge gap in experience between John McCain and Senator Obama. This makes the Governor Palin pick bittersweet for me. I think she is a potential conservative star of the future, but at the current time she is not ready to be president.
I do think to go on and on about Senator McCain is selling out the country with this veep pick is disingenuous. Sarah Palin is less qualified then Barack Obama to be president, but the fact that the experience gap between the two isn’t large is very telling. If the McCain/Palin ticket wins, the odds of Governor Palin being called on to serve as president early in that term are extremely low. If the Obama/Biden ticket wins, Senator Obama will be president. VPOTUS is a position that lends itself well to on the job training. POTUS is not. To pretend there isn’t a difference between the qualifications for the bottom and top of presidential tickets is naive at best.
If you want to make the argument that Senator McCain is putting the country at risk for his own selfish ambition by choosing Governor Palin as his veep candidate, you have to acknowledge that Senator Obama is putting the country at risk for his own selfish ambition by simply accepting his party’s nomination. I think the Obama campaign realized this somewhat when Senator Obama distanced himself from the attack statement released by campaign early in the day. The Obama campaign wants to talk about the danger in being inexperienced as little as possible.
This isn’t just about the number of days Obama or Palin have been in office. Since breaking onto the national stage Obama has given countless print, radio, and television interviews. He has been bombarded with criticism and praise until a sketch of the man could be draw from the stack of clippings. I’ve only seen a handful of Palin interviews. And I’ve little to no idea about her judgment or what she thinks about the issues. And I don’t know that McCain knows her much better than I do. If voters had found Obama, his experience, or his policies wanting, they had a chance to reject him. They approved. Only McCain has approved of Palin.
The Dish 