Inexperience - Palin Versus Obama

[GCT]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/13422

" While Democrats have continued to hit at Palin’s inexperience, only 36 percent of likely voters believe Palin lacks the proper experience while 47 percent said the same of Obama. "

Edit : Is this attributing to the fact that one is a governor and the other a senator? I noticed a thread here entitled " Palin Is An Insult To Our Intelligence " perhaps Palin was intended by McCain to be an insult to Obama.

 

[BobG]

1) Voters tend to value executive experience more than experience as a Senator. The last person to go from being Senator to President was John Kennedy. (Of course, the big knock on governors running for President is that they usually don't have much foreign relations experience - Bill Richardson being one exception.)

2) Palin has been governor less than 2 years! Palin is a rising star, but she might be at the phase Obama was in 2004 (and that would be generous). Her experience is one legitimate knock against her being VP.

3) Electing Obama gives a 100% chance of having an inexperienced President. Electing McCain gives a 33% chance, at most, of having an even more inexperienced President. The fact that she's running for VP instead of President might factor into the poll.

 

[russ_watters]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/13422

" While Democrats have continued to hit at Palin’s inexperience, only 36 percent of likely voters believe Palin lacks the proper experience while 47 percent said the same of Obama. "

Edit : Is this attributing to the fact that one is a governor and the other a senator? I noticed a thread here entitled " Palin Is An Insult To Our Intelligence " perhaps Palin was intended by McCain to be an insult to Obama.

It probably has more to do with the fact that one is a Presidential candidate and the other is a vicePresidential candidate.

 

[russ_watters]

3) Electing Obama gives a 100% chance of having an inexperienced President. Electing McCain gives a 33% chance, at most, of having an even more inexperienced President. The fact that she's running for VP instead of President might factor into the poll.

Where does that 33% chance come from? Is that the assumed odds of him dying in his first year in office?

 

[wildman]

I think the idea behind Palin was to out celebrity Obama. Celebrity was what Obama had going for him. Now the new girl on the block (Palin) is a whole lot more interesting to the Press than the old hat (Obama). It doesn't matter if the press is bad mouthing Palin. The point is that when she is getting the press, Obama isn't.

 

[LowlyPion]

Here's one on her experience:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzhFDQIgGSg

 

[las3rjock]

What Obama lacks in experience, he makes up for in intelligence and willingness to study the issues. The same cannot be said for McCain (who also has no executive experience) or Palin (who has executive experience comparable to a first-term mayor of a medium-sized city).

 

[russ_watters]

The same cannot be said for McCain (who also has no executive experience)...

Implication being that they have equal experience? Really?

or Palin (who has executive experience comparable to a first-term mayor of a medium-sized city).

Structurally, state government is a lot different than city government. Different laws, responsibilities, pools of money, etc.

 

[las3rjock]

Nitpicking my parenthetical arguments only proves my core argument, which is that experience is not a very useful measure of a candidate's qualification for office.

 

[BobG]

Where does that 33% chance come from? Is that the assumed odds of him dying in his first year in office?

Good point. Chances of a 72-year-old dying within 1 year is about 3.3%. The chances go up each year (http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/table4c6.html). It might not be appropriate of saying she would be extremely inexperienced if she'd been VP for 4 years.

I also have no real idea how years in POW camp affect a person's later life expectancy. He gets better health care than the average person. He's endured more physical abuse than the average person.

It's actually closer to a 32% chance of dying within the next 8 years for the average 72-year-old.

 

[Gokul43201]

Also, as President, you might have to deal with a wee bit more stress than the average, retired, 72-year-old male.

But on the other hand, the trend of having not-old Presidents is only about a century old. The first 20-odd Presidents took office at ages that were almost certainly above the average life expectancy at the time. McCain still has about 3 years to go before he passes that age.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

His father died at age 70. His mother is still alive at 96.

 

[LowlyPion]

His father died at age 70. His mother is still alive at 96.

Except his father, likely died of stress related occupation.

McCain is just running for President.