Dan

Calabrese

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September 1, 2008

Palin and Experience: Has McCain Set the Biggest Bear Trap of All Time?

Twenty-one baseball seasons ago, the Detroit Tigers looked finished after losing the first three games of a four-game series in Toronto during the season’s penultimate weekend. The Blue Jays led the Tigers by three-and-a-half games with seven to go. The Tigers were showing little life.

When a Detroit sportswriter suggested that it might be all over for the Tigers, tenacious outfielder Kirk Gibson acknowledged it might very well be, then added a caveat: “Or maybe we’ve just set the biggest bear trap of all time.”

The Blue Jays did not win another game that year, and Detroit took the division title on the season’s final day.

Has the McCain campaign just set the biggest bear trap of all time on the issue of experience? If they play it right, maybe they have.

When Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was announced as John McCain’s running mate, my first reaction was the same as a lot of other people: How can McCain hammer Barack Obama on his lack of experience when his own running mate has just as little? The same question obviously occurred to the Democrats, who immediately started hammering away at the fact that Palin was been governor for less than two years, and before that served in the less-than-lofty office of mayor of a town with only 9,000 people.

The Obama camp’s reaction was as predictable as the day is long. Suddenly they couldn’t wait to talk about experience.

The bear trap can and should be about the definition of experience. The Obama camp wants to define it in numbers of years and importance of offices. Palin has been a governor for less than two years, Obama a U.S. senator for less than four. Before that, Palin was a mayor, Obama a state legislator.

See? No difference. It’s a wash, and the McCain-Palin campaign can’t talk about experience.

But anyone who has ever been involved with hiring people knows a resume tells you little other than where the person has occupied space during various periods of his or her life. The meaningful definition of experience is achievement. If you compare Palin’s achievements to Obama’s, it’s not even a contest. Palin wins decisively.

First, in order to be elected governor, Palin had to take on her state’s Republican establishment, which is every bit as corrupt and special-interest-laden in its own way as, oh, say, the Chicago Democratic machine is in its way. For years, establishment Republicans had acquiesced while oil companies dithered on the building of a crucial natural gas pipeline. Palin took office and successfully got the oil companies to build the pipeline – without giving away tax breaks or other concessions. Palin delivered.

She has also delivered tax cuts, elimination of wasteful spending and consequences for unethical public officials. Before becoming governor, she served on Alaska’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, where she exposed corruption among her fellow Republicans and even helped stick the state’s Republican Party chairman with a $12,000 fine.

Any way you look at it, Palin has made the most of her limited time in office. She has achieved her goals primarily because she hasn’t been afraid of entrenched political interests – regardless of party. She’s been willing to make them mad if necessary in order to act in the best interests of the people.

Sounds a little like John McCain. While I don’t believe McCain has always been on the right side of the issues when he has taken on his fellow Republicans, his willingness to think for himself is always admirable. In Palin, he has found a kindred spirit with a track record to show she means it.

Compare this to Obama, who talks about change, but has accomplished none. He rose up through the Chicago Democratic machine, a firm of power brokers whose operation is not altogether different from its Republican counterpart in Alaska. Obama never lifted a finger to challenge his patrons’ corruption. It wouldn’t have been in his interests to do so.

As a state legislator, he often voted “present” so as to avoid subjecting himself to political jeopardy. As a U.S. senator, he has authored no important legislation, and has never even convened a hearing on the one subcommittee he chairs. About the only thing Obama has done since becoming a senator is talk. And run for president.

If you measure experience in terms of years and titles, there’s not much difference. If you measure it in terms of achievement, Palin eats Obama for lunch. So if Democrats have suddenly decided they want to talk about experience, they should call the Toronto Blue Jays, because they may well be stepping into the biggest bear trap of all time.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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