Video- Palin says Obama is "without the experience" to "get policy through" -- "it's a bit over his head"

Video- President's Weekly Address: Judge Sotomayors Experience

VIDEO-- John Sidney McCain: Mayors, governors don't have national security experience

By GottaLaff

Once again, I can't play this on my computer, but I have heard the sound on the radio. Priceless:

10/07: "I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time"

When does being a governor or mayor for a short period of time not disqualify your credentials on national security? When you are John McCain and your task is to defend your vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

When does being a governor or mayor for a short period of time ABSOLUTELY disqualify your credentials on national security? When you are John McCain and your task is to defeat primary opponents Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani.

Sarah Louise Palin:

"Charlie, again, we've got to remember what the desire is in this nation at this time," she said to the ABC host. "It is for no more politics as usual and somebody's big, fat resume maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment, where, yes, they've had opportunities to meet heads of state."

Pre-requisite for high office: No resume. That might imply that you have, you know, experience... Like, say, giving birth five times, shooting wolves from airplanes, and forcing rape victims to pay for their own tests.

Three questions Republicans are asking themselves about Palin

By GottaLaff

Democrats have more than these measly few questions, but at least Republicans are showing that they are able to form thoughts by coming up with three:

1) What else is out there about Palin? Monday brought the announcement that Palin's 17-year-old daughter is pregnant; news that Palin was once a member of the fringe Alaska independence party; and the revelation that Palin's husband was arrested for a DUI in the 1980s. The news about Palin has continued to come this morning, with the Washington Post reporting that Palin hired a lobbying firm during her time as the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, to lobby for millions in earmarks for the small town.

Question 1a: I'm not familiar with the Alaskan legal system, but if Bristol is 17, did her boyfriend commit statutory rape? Moving on:

2) Was the vetting process complete and professional? Reports in Tuesday's New York Times and Alaska Daily News both suggest the McCain campaign's vetting of Palin was swift and superficial, although the McCain campaign continues to insist that Palin was thoroughly and professionally vetted.

Per today's L.A. Times:

According to this Republican, who would discuss internal campaign strategizing only on condition of anonymity, the McCain team used little more than a Google Internet search as part of a rushed effort to review Palin's potential pitfalls. Just over a week ago, Palin was not on McCain's short list of potential running mates, the Republican said.

And finally:

3) And most significantly, what message will voters hear about McCain's judgment that he chose someone to be his running mate who has almost no national security experience and who is so much of an unknown quantity?

I believe that is the most important question of the three. All that talk of his vast experience resulting in superior judgment just evaporated.

As these questions continue to hang over Republicans, I'll be asking McCain's opponent for the presidency, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for his perspective on these issues in an exclusive interview airing Sunday on "This Week."

I know who I'll be watching this Sunday.

McCain senior advisor: "We never used experience as the big argument"

By GottaLaff

I am now officially overqualified to be vice president. Yesterday, I discovered that by living in close proximity to Mexico, I have foreign policy experience. Today I discovered that by having raised teenage twins, I should be ready to jump right into the role of president of the good ol' U.S.A.:

"They had to pivot away from experience," said Republican consultant John Weaver, a former McCain advisor. "In a change election, they have to give that up now."

As recently as Wednesday, in the midst of the Democratic National Convention, a McCain television ad dismissed Obama as "dangerously unprepared to be president." But by this weekend, McCain senior advisor Charles Black was downplaying the idea that experience had ever been a central McCain theme. "We never used experience as the big argument," he said.

What?! You mean...? But I...? What the...? All those ads.... ? When did...? And that celebrity label was.... ?? How could they be so hypocr...?

And Sunday in St. Paul, the site of this week's Republican National Convention, House GOP leader John A. Boehner dismissed the importance of experience.

Boehner dismissed it too? Have they all gone mad? What happened to good old fashioned smearing? Where did all that derision of Obama's infantdom go? Oh I know! I get it now: It's because Sarah Louise Palin came along! You don't have to tell me something thrice (and yes, I just wanted to say "thrice")!

Boehner:

"We've all started new jobs from time to time in our career," he said. "And most of you can remember the first day that you spent on almost every one of those new jobs. Because when you got it, you thought, 'Oh my God, how am I going to do this?'

"Nobody's qualified on the first day," he continued. "I don't care whether it's Barack Obama or whether it's John McCain sitting in the White House."

Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, no biggie. Ya gets into the White House, ya picks up a few pointers, and ya deals with a few Ahmadinejads without a hitch... Easy as pie. Why, it's just like learning to ride a Segway.

Tamar Fenton, 45, of suburban Minneapolis, said she admired Palin, a mother of five, and was not bothered by the governor's relative lack of experience. "If you can go up against a teenaged kid," said Fenton, "you could go up against a world leader."

Nevertheless, Fenton said, she could not support a candidate such as Palin who opposes abortion rights and gun control.

Note to self: Next time I have to go up against a world leader, call my twins and thank them for preparing me.

Rudy: McCain Didn't Have Executive Experience Before He Had It

By GottaLaff

Rudy, Rudy, Rudy. You're only reinforcing our already low opinion of you:


See that video? Did you watch it yet? It's short. Watch it, and then read this next part:

That's a bit off message, because McCain himself arguably has no serious executive experience -- certainly not recently. [...]

But McCain's political career from 1982 onwards has been entirely in the legislature. And guess who didn't think McCain's Navy work constituted executive experience only a few months ago? Why, Rudy didn't, that's who!

In January of 2008, Rudy was asked by Larry King whether he thought he was more qualified in national security than McCain. "I do, Larry, because of my executive experience," Rudy said

"But after all, as a senator, John one is one of a hundred," Rudy also said, adding: "I had to make decisions."

The kicker: At today's presser, Rudy also alluded to quotes from other Dems during the primary questioning Obama's readiness to be president -- just as Rudy himself, as we have seen, did of McCain.

He's such an easy target.

Quote Of The Day

Snap!!!

On Experience

Roger Bloom: "Barack Obama already has more pre-presidential experience in government than three of the four guys on Mount Rushmore"

Premature extrapolation: Why Obama hasn't found his landslide... yet

By GottaLaff

Whenever someone asks me why Obama isn't winning by a landslide in the polls against someone who represents a 3rd (failed) Bush term, my answer is, "It's early, people aren't paying attention yet. And it's summer, people are on vacation . And Obama hasn't chosen a running mate. And there haven't been debates between Obama and McCain yet." And.. And...

And it looks like it's all that and a lot more:

Asking why Barack Obama seems to have stalled and isn't beating John McCain by a lot assumes that there are good reasons to believe that Obama should be leading RIGHT NOW by a healthier margin than roughly 3.3%. [...] Recent history suggests that the electorate swings late, not early, as undecided voters slowly, carefully, and fairly rationally begin to make up their minds. [...]

He IS leading. Over the course of two months and literally dozens of surveys, I can recall only two national polls -- one Rasmussen IVR poll and one Newsweek poll of likely voters -- showing John McCain in the lead. Everywhere, all the time, Obama's leading in the polls. The unknown guy is leading over the known guy. Obama's currently building enormous Senate-style campaigns in 18 states and has several major states -- Iowa and Wisconsin -- in the bag already. Chill.

Thank you. Finally, someone out there who isn't jumping on the corporate bandwagon.

Partisanship. [...]Indeed, given the past few cycles, if Obama recieved roughly 51.5% of the vote to McCain's 47 or 48%, it would be a post-dated blow-out. Maybe Democrats expect too much.

White, generational racism. Maybe racism accounts for Obama's difficulties with older white voters and white men, in particular. But with one exception -- older white women -- his fall-offs among these demographics roughly track the norm for Democraitc presidential candidates.

Otherness. There is a thin version, as expostulated by David Brooks, is that Obama, a "sojournor," and "voters have trouble placing him in his context, understanding the roots and values in which he is ineluctably embedded." Basically: the Peter Hart problem. The thinker version: whether it's his name, his binational background, his biracial identity, his urbanity, his inexperience -- people don't really trust him.

Bambiness. Obama doesn't counterpunch effectively, and to the extent that baseline opinions about character are being formed now, bruises that were just about to fully heal from the primaries are blushing again. Put it another way, just as the McCain campaign is offended by the rank inexperience and presumptuous of the Obama campaign and aren't bottling up their feelings, the Obama campaign is offended by the rank immaturity and stupidity of the McCain campaign and aren't bottling up their feelings.

Gas prices and the Iraq war. McCain strategists credit McCain's "Dr. No" campaign and the success of the surge as reasons for weakly partisan Republicans starting to get more excited about the McCain campaign.

Information. Right now, the type of voter who's paying attention is primed to support John McCain. After the conventions, when younger voters typically tune in -- and by younger here, I mean, under 55 or so -- then Obama's margins will widen because these folks are his folks.

Obama has work to do, and from the looks of things lately, he's beginning to realize that. There is still a long way to go in this election season. Let's hope Obama keeps on swinging hard while strutting his very impressive stuff.

Obama vs. McCain on Iraq visits. Barack: Game, set, match

By GottaLaff

Logic is on Obama's side, as usual. First, Obama:

ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., argued in San Diego today that just because Sen. John McCain has made multiple visits to Iraq, that does not mean that he has the correct perspective on the region.

"John McCain has been in Congress 25 years, no doubt about that. If this is a longevity measure, then John McCain wins," Obama said to reporters. "I'll recall the visit he made last year in which he was surrounded by helicopters and SWAT teams and came back and reported how safe everything was in Baghdad. You know, I don't think that that was indicative of what was actually happening on the ground at that time."

Ball's in your court, J Sid:

In response, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds says, ""If Barack Obama believes that visiting Iraq and meeting with commanders will not give him any new perspective, then we can only assume he's going just to smile for the cameras."

Ooooh, J Sid, backhand swing and a miss! I'm sorry, what's that, Barack? You're about to serve?

"Before we went into Iraq, I knew the difference between Shia and Sunni. Before we went into Iraq, I said that this is going to be an extraordinarily costly endeavor," Obama said. "Before we went into Iraq, I said that we would be bogged down, that it would cost us billions of dollars and thousands of lives and that it would fan anti-American sentiment and that it would distract us from the war against Afghanistan."

Barack: 17519071 J Sid: 0