Obama: I Am Qualified For President Because I Am Running For President
Will someone please get this man a teleprompter! As much as I enjoy watching Obama stutter and look utterly confused when asked an off the cuff question, it is now becoming somewhat embarrassing to see a man who may be our next President look so helpless when asked questions by media pundits. On Anderson Cooper Sunday night Barack Obama was asked the difference between his own experience, and that of Sarah Palin. This is a question Obama should have been well prepared for, as his own campaign opened that door when questioning her experience. Here is his response:
AC: Some Republican critics say, you don’t have the experience to handle a situation like this [Hurricane Gustav]. They’ve in fact said that Governor Palin has more executive experience as mayor of a small town and as governor of a big state like Alaska. What’s your response?
BO: Well, you know, my understanding is that, uh, Governor Palin’s town of Wasilly [sic] has, uh, 50 employees, uh, uh, we’ve got 2500, uh, in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. Uh, uh, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month. Uh, so I think that, uh, our ability to manage large systems, uh, and to, uh, execute, uh, I think has been made clear over the last couple of years. Uh, and certainly, in terms of, uh, the legislation that I’ve passed just dealing with this issue post-Katrina, uh, of how we handle emergency management. The fact that, uh, many of my recommendations were adopted and are being put in place, uh, as we speak indicates to extent to which we can provide the kinds of support and good service that the American people expect.
Barack Obama has chosen to ignore Palin’s time spent as Governor in the same manner as the majority of his followers have. By concentrating on her time as Mayor of a small town he believes he can downplay her experience. The glaring problem with this plan is that he is referring to her as Governor Palin. As a sitting Governor, Sarah Palin’s responsibilities dwarf those of Barack Obama’s, to a point where Obama looks naive for even attempting to compare the two.
Ed Morrissey:
But the main point here is that Obama didn’t really answer the question, and he set up a straw man argument in response to Cooper. Governor Palin is, well, governor, and not currently the mayor of Wasila. As Governor, Palin operates a $9 billion budget, and manages $13 billion in revenue. Furthermore, she runs a government that employs 25,000 people.
The McCain campaign wasted no time in making Obama look foolish, remarking:
“For Barack Obama to argue that he’s experienced enough to be president because he’s running for president is desperate circular logic and it’s laughable. It is a testament to Barack Obama’s inexperience and failing qualifications that he would stoop to passing off his candidacy as comparable to Governor Sarah Palin’s executive experience managing a budget of over 10 billion dollar dollars, and more than 24,000 employees.” —Tucker Bounds, spokesman John McCain 2008
Let’s also not forget the $5 billion budget surplus Alaska currently has. The Alaskan State legislature’s biggest debate right now is how they plan on allocating those extra funds. Barack Obama on the other hand believes it is unrealistic that the he will be able to balance the Federal Budget within his first four years.
Having a fiscal Conservative like Sarah Palin in the White House is truly change that we can believe in, Obama offers nothing but the same.
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Charlie, he certainly has run his campaign better than Daddy Mac, who’s picked a corrupt, sanctimonious, and utterly inexperienced candidate in what many bill as the most important decision a presidential candidate makes. His campaign has brought in record amounts of money from record amounts of donors; it is perhaps the first presidential campaign to maintain offices in EVERY single state of the union, not just the red or the blue; even though it started as little more than a flight of fancy nineteen months ago, when the Democratic establishment was firmly behind Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama has not only overcome Hillary and her campaign, but also her husband Bill Clinton and all of the Clinton faithful–an accomplishment that twice eluded the Republicans and which, had Hillary been the nominee, would have surely eluded them once more.
What did Sarah Palin accomplish? She took in millions in earmarks while mayor of Wasilla, which, just to hit it home, had about 5,000 residents during her tenure; and, quite humorously, John McCain criticized the very earmark appropriations that went to Wasilla in 2001. And now, McCain’s surrogates contend that Palin had no other choice but to seek funding through Federal earmarks. McCain lackey Taylor Griffin told claimed that Palin said she was “disgusted” at the fact that “small towns like hers were dependent on earmarks.” But the records actually show that “Wasilla had received few if any earmarks before Palin became mayor.” (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/la-na-earmarks3-2008sep03,0,5932587.story) But surely that’s just one blotch on her otherwise immaculate escutcheon… right?? Well, not really. This is just one of several. Like, for instance, Troopergate–she fired the Alaska public safety commissioner because he refused to dismiss state trooper Mike Wooten, who had gone through a rough divorce involving a custody battle with Mrs. Palin’s sister… And now investigations are underway–the findings to be made public about five days before the election. The McCain campaign, oozing with integrity, rushed to the scene with a group of lawyers to delay the publication of the findings. But that’s not all, Charlie…
Early in her tenure as mayor, the city council threatened to recall her over accusations that she fired the city’s police chief, Irl Stambaugh, and the library director, Mary Ellen Emmons, without warning. She accused them in a letter saying: “I do not feel I have your full support in my efforts to govern the city of Wasilla. Therefore I intend to terminate your employment …” (The Anchorage Daily News, via nexis) Notice a pattern? All of this, put together, brings into sharp relief a simple fact: Sarah Palin is a megalomaniacal, corrupt wingnut with no foreign policy to run on except for the fact that the state she governs has a Russian name.
And the thing I find MOST amusing about this, Charlie, is the fact that the Republicans have been excoriating the Democrats for succumbing to the charm of an inexperienced pol like Obama since he clinched the nomination in June, and now, they themselves seem to head over heels in love with Sarah Palin and her charms–an even MORE inexperienced and, what’s more, ten times more corrupt and power-hungry pol from the only state with more moose than people.
But she has ‘executive’ experience, right? How has she run her family? How has she ‘executed’ her role as a mother, when her 17 year old daughter is already getting it on and heavy with child–before marriage? What would your hero Jerry Fallwell, may he burn in the deepest, darkest trough in hell, say about this, Charlie?
Oy… Republicans… Can’t live with them… But if there weren’t any, who, then, would entertain?
Either you are ignorant to the facts surrounding you or you hope others are. Democrats re elected Richard Jefferson despite being caught with $90,000 in his freezer, whose serial numbers just coincidentally matched the serial numbers of bills used in a bribery sting. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid claim, innocent until proven guilty, and then fight to have evidence removed from jeffersons office ruled as in admissible.
Now you turn around and have the nerve to bring up, ummm troopergate, as the left has called it. As if it is something of a scandal. Instead of reading your Barack Obama talking points, I suggest you do just an iota of research. Wooten tasered his 11 year old step son, was caught drinking alcohol in his patrol car, and threatened the life of his father in law (Sarah Palins father). To suggest that her demanding his termination was only because of the messy divorce is dumb. Had Wooten never divorced Palins sister, and Sarah allowewd him to remain in office, the left would be screaming he wasn’t fired. After all, it is your people who claim that a taser is cruel and unusual punishment.
P - In this very, very bad year for Republicans, Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain are VITUALLY TIED in the polls. Obama should be 15 - 20 points ahead. So he has the AUDACITY to cite his campaign as evidence that he has the experience to be President.
I don’t even know what to say about this. I’m speechless.
Carol, I suspect you’re referring to a generic Democrat-Republican ballot… And yes, it’s true. Generic Democrat is ahead of John McBush by anywhere from 10-15 points. And Generic Democrat should’ve won in 2004. Generic Republican should have won in 1996. Generic Democrat should have won in 1988… The point I’m trying to convey is that Generic Democrat isn’t a human being. Generic Democrat has no controversies and practically walks on water. Barack Obama–and McMelanoma–are both human beings. And if you look at the only measurement that really matters–that is, the electoral college vote, Obama trounces McSame: www.fivethirtyeight.com — even after a convention in which they continually lambasted Obama and cast aspersions about, of all things, his past as a community organizer–you know, the kind of people that organize people when out-of-touch politicians in Washington just don’t cut it… Rudy Giuliani is a joke. And Sarah Palin may well be a bull–she defecated all over that stage in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Romney has the gall to suggest that it’s the left’s fault Washington is the way it is today when the right has had control of Congress for six of the last eight years and has had a Republican president in office for all eight, with an increasingly dangerous amount of executive power and the most corrupt, most influential vice president since perhaps Thomas Jefferson–and not in a good way.
Obama is winning. Obama will win. I think you know this in the back of your head–because the only reason McInsane chose Palin was because he realized if he just made a conventional pick–if he’d selected a Romney or a Pawlenty, for instance–he would have almost made his loss on November 4 a forgone conclusion. Sadly, the investigation into troopergate has been fast-tracked, despite McCain minions’ efforts to defer it, rather conveniently, until after the election. I can’t wait for September 26. That is when you’ll start seeing the 10-point leads, Carol. See you then.
Bill Clinton did a decent job as president and he was just a governer of a state. Then again, Jimmy Carter was an absolute disaster.
Regardless, Palin will make a great vice president.