"I am Qualified to be President Because I am Running For President"
September 2nd 2008 22:31
Why is it that people can’t seem to accept the slightest misstep from the Republicans or the McCain campaign yet have the faith to defend the greatest leaps of logic coming out of the Obama camp? The McCain camp is nit-picked to death and, even when they have yet to respond to a situation, they are presumed to be mishandling it. Obama, on the other hand, is expected to perform with typical ‘brilliance’ despite the fact that his latest statement demonstrates anything but. Obama’s argument is an absolute stunner: he has more experience to be President than Sarah Palin because she was a Mayor and a Governor in a small town and a small state… And he has more managerial experience because he has been running a presidential campaign for two years.
Let that sink in. Obama contends that Palin’s town of Wasilla only has 50 employees and so, since the Obama campaign employs 2500, he has the edge over her. Seems like pretty straight-forward math at first look but past that the argument is an absolute shambles. That someone could contend that because they are running for President they are more qualified than someone who has just entered the race is pretty laughable. It’s like saying because you are interviewing for a job you are more qualified than someone who has been doing a similar job for two years. The most analogous job to the President of the United States is a State Governor, who has the same responsibilities in managing Cabinet Secretaries, developing policy platforms and drawing up Budgets that feed the Government machine. But Obama thinks he has more experience to be the President… Simply by BEING Barack Obama. Well, that makes a whole bunch of sense. Trying to back up his argument, Obama said that the Budget for Wasilla City Council is about $12 million and because his Budget per month is three times that, he deserves to be President. Says a lot for a guy when he thinks SPENDING three times as much money on a campaign as a city does on actual services means that he is more qualified to hold the highest office in the land. But wait. Obama says that his economic policy for the country is better than John McCain because McCain himself admitted that he doesn’t “understand” the economy as well as he should. If Obama is bragging about spending three times the amount on his campaign per month than the council of a city of 9000 spends in a year, that doesn’t bode well for his “sound economic policy”.
Obama also completely ignores Palin’s role as Governor of Alaska. He pretends as if she’s straight out of Wasilla City Council, ignoring the fact that she is still running a government of 24000 employees with a Budget of over $10 billion. It’s erroneous and misleading for Obama to pretend that Palin is some random city mayor and nothing else. By dodging her record, he contributes to lowering expectations of Sarah Palin and actually feeds into what is probably McCain campaign strategy. By lowering the publics expectations of Palin from the get go, when she goes out and performs well on the campaign trail people will be stunned and more impressed with her than they would have been otherwise. A spit-fire Sarah Palin in the VP debate against Joe Biden is sure to infuriate the veteran Senator and as soon as he gets flummoxed, Biden is likely to explode in one of his token fits of anger and arrogance. When he does, Palin comes off even better and the McCain ticket gets a slight bump. That’s not so bad for a small town Mayor.
Tucker Bounds, the ubiquitous spokesperson for the McCain campaign, has described the Obama statement as laughable in a statement saying:
“For Barack Obama to argue that he’s experienced enough to be president because he’s running for president is desperate circular logic and it’s laughable.”
He’s right. Its circular logic that flat-out doesn’t make sense. I have the feeling that Obama might be getting campaign fatigue right as the troops head into the home straight of what’s been a grueling election season. He needs to be very careful. The media have him winning but the bump he got from his VP pick and uninterrupted convention should have been way bigger than what has been shown. By all rights Obama should be well over ten points ahead. The fact is, McCain has generally been within the margin of error or at least just outside it. The race is hot and Obama can’t afford to get lazy.
He certainly can’t afford to underestimate his opponents. Even if one of them is ‘just’ a small town Mayor.
Let that sink in. Obama contends that Palin’s town of Wasilla only has 50 employees and so, since the Obama campaign employs 2500, he has the edge over her. Seems like pretty straight-forward math at first look but past that the argument is an absolute shambles. That someone could contend that because they are running for President they are more qualified than someone who has just entered the race is pretty laughable. It’s like saying because you are interviewing for a job you are more qualified than someone who has been doing a similar job for two years. The most analogous job to the President of the United States is a State Governor, who has the same responsibilities in managing Cabinet Secretaries, developing policy platforms and drawing up Budgets that feed the Government machine. But Obama thinks he has more experience to be the President… Simply by BEING Barack Obama. Well, that makes a whole bunch of sense. Trying to back up his argument, Obama said that the Budget for Wasilla City Council is about $12 million and because his Budget per month is three times that, he deserves to be President. Says a lot for a guy when he thinks SPENDING three times as much money on a campaign as a city does on actual services means that he is more qualified to hold the highest office in the land. But wait. Obama says that his economic policy for the country is better than John McCain because McCain himself admitted that he doesn’t “understand” the economy as well as he should. If Obama is bragging about spending three times the amount on his campaign per month than the council of a city of 9000 spends in a year, that doesn’t bode well for his “sound economic policy”.
Obama also completely ignores Palin’s role as Governor of Alaska. He pretends as if she’s straight out of Wasilla City Council, ignoring the fact that she is still running a government of 24000 employees with a Budget of over $10 billion. It’s erroneous and misleading for Obama to pretend that Palin is some random city mayor and nothing else. By dodging her record, he contributes to lowering expectations of Sarah Palin and actually feeds into what is probably McCain campaign strategy. By lowering the publics expectations of Palin from the get go, when she goes out and performs well on the campaign trail people will be stunned and more impressed with her than they would have been otherwise. A spit-fire Sarah Palin in the VP debate against Joe Biden is sure to infuriate the veteran Senator and as soon as he gets flummoxed, Biden is likely to explode in one of his token fits of anger and arrogance. When he does, Palin comes off even better and the McCain ticket gets a slight bump. That’s not so bad for a small town Mayor.
Tucker Bounds, the ubiquitous spokesperson for the McCain campaign, has described the Obama statement as laughable in a statement saying:
“For Barack Obama to argue that he’s experienced enough to be president because he’s running for president is desperate circular logic and it’s laughable.”
He’s right. Its circular logic that flat-out doesn’t make sense. I have the feeling that Obama might be getting campaign fatigue right as the troops head into the home straight of what’s been a grueling election season. He needs to be very careful. The media have him winning but the bump he got from his VP pick and uninterrupted convention should have been way bigger than what has been shown. By all rights Obama should be well over ten points ahead. The fact is, McCain has generally been within the margin of error or at least just outside it. The race is hot and Obama can’t afford to get lazy.
He certainly can’t afford to underestimate his opponents. Even if one of them is ‘just’ a small town Mayor.
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Comment by Ben Whitcomb
Extreme Critic
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
Cuts both ways.
Comment by Paul Bleakley
Agent Politics
But Obama does have to be careful not to let stupid statements break his lead. So far the campaign has been running pretty well, but more "I'm qualified to be President because I'm running for it" and it will end up like John Kerry's "I voted for it before I voted against it".