- You couldn't get a job at McDonald's and become district manager after 143 days of experience.
- You couldn't become chief of surgery after 143 days of experience of being a surgeon.
- You couldn't get a job as a teacher and be the superintendent after 143 days of experience.
- You couldn't join the military and become a colonel after a 143 days of experience.
- You couldn't get a job as a reporter and become the nightly news anchor after 143 days of experience.
BUT....
- From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United State Senator, to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory committee, he logged 143 days of experience in the Senate. That's how many days the Senate was actually in session and working.
- After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he was ready to be Commander In Chief, Leader of the Free World .... 143 days. We all have to start somewhere. The senate is a good start, but after 143 days, that's all it is - a start.
- AND, strangely, a large sector of the American public is okay with this and campaigning for him. We wouldn't accept this in our own line of work, yet some are okay with this for the President of the United States of America? Come on folks, we are not voting for the next American Idol!
3 comments:
But for some reason, a person can have 0 days of experience and think that they are ready to be the Vice-President.
I'm not sure I get how this works. :)
I’ll assume you are talking about Sarah Palin. I’ve always believed that a governor has more experience on how to run the United States than a senator does, since on a state level their position is similar (not the same, but similar on a much smaller scale). Sarah has more leadership experience than you are lead to believe.
From 1992 to 1996 Sarah Palin was a member of the Wasilla, Alaska city council. She was mayor of Wasilla 1996 to 2002. She chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from 2003 to 2004. She assumed office as governor of Alaska on December 4, 2006, and has been serving there since.
Wasilla, AK had a population of about 5,000 people while Palin was mayor. Alaska has a population of about 670,000. It is ranked 47th in population in the US.
So it looks like most of her experience was administrating over what is equivalent to two large high schools. Her gubernatorial experience is administrating over a population half the size of Salt Lake County. Would you be comfortable sending a Salt Lake County mayor to DC as Vice-President after just 2 years? In principle, they would have twice the experience of Palin.
While perhaps it is true the responsibilities of a governor are more parallel to that of the president, the issues that face the senate are more closely related to the issues that face the president. Gov. Palin has shown that she doesn't really have much depth on issues like international relations and the economy. (You may or may not agree with Obama on either of these issues, but if we are playing the experience game, he at least knows the history and the current discussion on national-level issues.)
That being said, I think that I like Palin generally, and if she showed up four years from now with a better knowledge of the issues, I would feel a lot more comfortable voting for her. It mostly just bothered me that McCain would choose someone who had very little to add to the ticket besides a pretty face.
It also bothers me to see people pointing their fingers in one direction while closing their eyes to the other.
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