Friday, August 29, 2008

The VP pick

UPDATE: For a more detailed comparison of Obama/Palin, check this diary at Dkos.

McCain made his announcement to his "massive rally" and the response has been underwhelming.

Sarah Palin - Gov. Alaska (1.5 years)

Prior to winning the governorship of Alaska, Palin was the mayor of a small town of 6,500. She holds a degree in Journalism, and a minor (yes a minor) in Political Science. She is 44, and has five children, the youngest of which she gave birth to in April 08. She is anti-choice, pro-oil, anti-gay, and a creationist to boot.

She has no advanced degrees and no foreign policy experience. She is currently under investigation in her home state for abuse of power. She is a heartbeat away from the presidency, and probably couldn't find Afghanistan on a map.

By tapping her as VP, McCain is cynically trying to lure Clinton voters to his ticket. Once again, McCain does not get it. Palin is no Hillary. Palin's 114,000 votes propelling her to the governor's mansion certainly does not compare to the 18 million votes the Clinton received in her primary campaign. Offering Palin up as a Hillary surrogate is as transparent as it is insulting.
Not to mention that the McCain Campaign just effectively cut their legs out from under the main argument that they had attempted to make about Obama - that he is too inexperienced. Observe.

Barack Obama

After attending Columbia University, he became a community organizer on the south side of Chicago for three years. Following that, he entered Harvard Law School and was ultimately voted the President of the Harvard Law Review - the first black man to hold that post. After graduating magna cum laude he returned to Chicago and became a professor at the University of Chicago for the next 12 years. During that time, he also joined a law firm that specialized in civil rights.

In 1996 he was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives. He served there for seven years before running for US Senate. He won that campaign in 2004, and has served as the Junior Senator from Illinois ever since. In 2007 he kicked off an improbably campagin to be the Democratic Party's nominee for the 2008 election. Last night, he became the first black man to ever be selected as the presidential nominee for a major political party.

So, by the numbers:

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