Matt Yglesias

29 Responses to “Executive Experience”

1. El Cid Says:
   September 1st, 2008 at 3:52 pm

   You are forgetting the night raid she led as Commander in Chief of the Alaska National Guard to capture a pinned-down team of Navy Seals on the eastern tip of Russia who were trying to protect the genetic integrity of our moose population.

2. Jake Says:
   September 1st, 2008 at 3:53 pm

   As the sheer lunacy of the Palin pick unfolds, and Republicans twist themselves into intellectual pretzels to justify it, I’m not sure whether we should laugh or cry.

   They seem to have a propensity for getting away with these sorts of things.

3. howard Says:
   September 1st, 2008 at 4:32 pm

   i love history, but actually, i can sympathize with eliminating the position of “city historian” for a city that small….

   plus she’s a socialist (at least as far as energy taxes).

   i think that adds up to great leadership!

4. peter Says:
   September 1st, 2008 at 4:33 pm

   I’m surprised I haven’t yet read about her time on the student council, and how that gives her an even bigger margin of experience over Obama.

5. msmackle Says:
   September 1st, 2008 at 4:57 pm

   I belive the claim they are making is that “Palin has more executive experience than Obama, Biden, and McCain put together”, and that rather than this being a knock against McCain for a lack of executive experience, it is intended to be an argument in favour of her in response to her general inexperience. It is not intended as an argument for the need for executive experience, which would obviously be an argument against McCain as well, it’s an argument specifically in response to the claim that she is inexperienced.

6. Don Williams Says:
   September 1st, 2008 at 6:37 pm

   Re “by the “Palin has more executive experience than Obama” logic the right is now using, Palin is actually more experienced than John McCain ”
   ————
   Yes, but McCain has experience as a military commander and has Palin as a partner.

   But contrast, Obama has ..er.. Joe Biden.

   As opposed to say — Bill Richardson or even Bill Clinton as Vice President.

   Note to the DNC: Next time, When you play Rock-Paper-Scissors with the Republicans, ignore them when they say “You go first”.

7. Don Williams Says:
   September 1st, 2008 at 6:45 pm

   PS to the DNC: When you put someone up as VicePresident, you’re saying that he’s qualified to serve as President if the elected President is killed.

   That argument’s hard to make if –in YOUR OWN PRIMARY — you have already said that said nominee is NOT qualified to be President. As shown by you giving the nominee only a few percent of the vote and him having to drop out early.

8. Richard Steven Hack Says:
   September 1st, 2008 at 7:09 pm

   “They seem to have a propensity for getting away with these sorts of things.”

   Which is the point Matt and the rest of the smug Democrats are ignoring here.

   It’s going to be real fun for me to listen to the wailing and gnashing of teeth after McCain wins the elections. As an example, back when I was in college in Eugene, Oregon, I used to love listening to the local radio guys talk about how UofO was going to win the next game – then cracking up when the team lost big time and all the griping and moaning the next day on those same radio shows.

   I love it when the home team gets their asses kicked!

9. 55 Says:
   September 1st, 2008 at 7:30 pm

   RSH, how many times did you predict a summer war with Iran?

10. Beer Here Says:
    September 1st, 2008 at 7:48 pm

    Yep, laugh away. It will make the McCain victory (nay, Obama defeat) all the more unbearable for you. Listen to RSHack on this one.

    If the Democrats cannot win this one, do you all agree they should just give up and stop trying?

11. Robert Says:
    September 1st, 2008 at 8:03 pm

    Hehe, it’s funny that conservatives oppose keeping track of history. How will they know what to conserve? But, then again, the Conservative Movement is not very conservative.

12. Jeffrey Davis Says:
    September 1st, 2008 at 8:46 pm

    Yep, laugh away. It will make the McCain victory (nay, Obama defeat) all the more unbearable for you.

    Trust me. It would be unbearable for everyone.

13. David W. Fenton Says:
    September 1st, 2008 at 8:50 pm

    I’ve run the numbers on the absurdity of the Republicans’ Experience Math here:

    –
    David W. Fenton
    http://dfenton.com/NoComment/

14. David W. Fenton Says:
    September 1st, 2008 at 8:51 pm

    Ooops! Forgot to include text inside the link:

    The absurdity of the Republicans’ Experience Math

    –
    David W. Fenton
    http://dfenton.com/NoComment/

15. Don Williams Says:
    September 1st, 2008 at 11:17 pm

    Re 55’s question “RSH, how many times did you predict a summer war with Iran? ”
    ————–
    1) Richard and I have noted several times since the first of the year that Bush/Cheney have a strong incentive to give Obama a Fait Accompli (or John McCain big time political cover) by attacking Iran Before Bush/Cheney leave office. Check the posts back on Matthew’s previous blog at the Atlantic.

    And why not –what do Bush/Cheney have to lose?

    2) I haven’t had much faith in the Jerusalem Post in the past (back when now-convicted felon Conrad Black made Richard Perle its editor). However, JPost is now reporting that Dutch Intelligence thinks the same as Richard and I –and are pulling their people out of the target areas.

    From http://www.turks.us/article.php?story=2008090110115742

    “The Dutch intelligence service, AIVD, has called off an operation aimed at infiltrating and sabotaging Iran’s weapons industry due to an assessment that a U.S. attack on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program is imminent, Israel’s Jerusalem Post wrote on Monday citing a report in the Netherlands’ De Telegraaf daily.

    The report claimed that the Dutch operation had been “extremely successful”, and had been stopped because the U.S. military was planning to hit targets that were “connected with the Dutch espionage action.”

    The impending air-strike on Iran was to be carried out by unmanned aircraft “within weeks”, the report claimed, quoting “well placed” sources.

    According to the report, information gleaned from AIVD’s operation in Iran has provided several of the sites that are to be targeted in the strike, including “parts for missiles and launching equipment”.

    “Information from the AIVD operation has been shared in recent years with the CIA,” the report said.”

    ———–

    3) The Iranians are claiming its all just a chickenshit propaganda operation. They note that US Neocons are just following the propaganda principles Adolph laid down in Mein Kampf –which I thought was a nice touch.

    It will be interesting to see if the Iranians carry their reasoning a little further and remember what Adolph did AFTER he made verbal threats.

    See http://www.payvand.com/news/08/sep/1003.html

16. Don Williams Says:
    September 1st, 2008 at 11:22 pm

    4) The one bullshit item I saw in the Dutch story was the claim that the attack would be with unmanned aircraft. I very much doubt that –for two reasons.

    One, The Air Force leadership would have a collective orgasm if offered the opportunity to use their new stealth fighter — the Raptor — in order to convince Congress to order a few hundred more. Of course, the problem with stealth is that you can’t hang things off of hard points on the wings — all bombs have to be carried internally –which limits you to little chickenshit 500 pound bombs.
    But that won’t matter — the Raptors will put the IRanians eyes out (kill radar and comms) for Part 2:

    Which will be a wave of B52s out of Diego Garcia. Because if Bush launches this attack, he will want to make sure there’s little blowback from the Iranians against Israel. (Else Sheldon Adelson and other billionaries in the Israel Lobby won’t shower the RNC with money in big fat globs –which is the one point of this little soiree. Plus Bush won’t want any blowback against Big Oil’s investments in Iraq — protection of which is the other goal.)

    Haim Saban laid out the Air Tasking Order over a year ago in Haaretz: kill the Iranian infrastructure. Bomb them back into the fucking Stone Age and sit on them.

    Every power generating site, comms, electricity, water, etc. If the Iranians are focused simply on surviving a cold ass winter, they won’t hit Israel. Or not very hard.

17. marlys Says:
    September 2nd, 2008 at 12:42 am

    McCain would have served as mayor…but his captors never let the POWs out to vote.

18. Richard Steven Hack Says:
    September 2nd, 2008 at 2:06 am

    Problem is the Air Force doesn’t have a “wave” of B-52 or stealth bombers. They don’t have enough to take out all the Iranian missile sites before the Iranians launch them at the Green Zone and the Dimona plant in Israel (they won’t hit the latter, they aren’t that accurate – they will hit the former).

    I thought at one point that Bush would simply try for a “pin prick” attack against an Iranian “training camp for Iraqi insurgents” inside Iran, then use the Iranian response to ratchet up the war – thus being “blameless” because he could say “well, the Iranians are killing our boys in Iraq”. Now I think the Georgia conflict indicates he’ll go for broke – a full-scale assault on the Iranian nuclear facilities and all the military facilities that might prevent that.

    There will be blowback against Israel regardless. Hizballah still owes Israel one for the Mughniyah killing. Nasrallah has said Hibzallah won’t necessarily attack Israel over Iran, but an Iran attack by the US would be a perfect reason to add to the Mughniyah killing to justify another Hizballah operation. For its part, Israel is just waiting for another excuse to attack Lebanon – and probably Syria – again.

    It’s hard to gauge what the Iranian response will be immediately to a full-scale attack. They might hunker down and wait, conserving what they can for later. Or they might launch a full-scale spasm missile attack against every available US and Israeli target in the Middle East that they can reach. Almost certainly they will launch against US bases in Iraq – especially air bases – because they know those bases will be used to attack them.

    They will probably immediately mine the Straits of Hormuz and launch swarm attacks on US Navy ships within range. It’s likely they’ll take down at least one Navy ship.

    Beyond that, their response is likely to be asymmetrical: attacks against US targets all over the Middle East – and perhaps elsewhere – by terrorist hit teams.

    At the very least, they will unleash al-Sadr and the other Shia militias they control in Iraq as well as the thousands of agents they can and probably have infiltrated into Iraq already.

    As William Lind has suggested, if the weather is favorable, they could even conceivably roll up – or at least severely damage – US forces in Iraq. But I think the Iranian forces would take too much damage to try to do that, so I don’t think they will – unless the Shia attacks on the US in Iraq are really effective and the US finds its supply routes from Kuwait cut off entirely. In that case, Iraq will become a no-go zone for the US within ninety days of an attack on Iran.

    As for surviving a cold winter – well, with oil spiking to $250-300 or more a barrel, I’d say the people in the northern half of the US had better be worrying about that. Not to mention $10/gallon at the gas pump. And Hugo Chavez isn’t going to bail out the US with emergency shipments of cheap oil this time.

19. Richard Steven Hack Says:
    September 2nd, 2008 at 2:26 am

    And how y’all like these apples?

    Biden camp says report on Iran a lie
    http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1220186495107&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

    Money Quotes:

    A spokesman for US Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Biden on Monday scathingly rejected an Army Radio report which claimed Biden told Jerusalem officials three years ago that he firmly opposed an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities and that Israel would likely have to come to terms with a nuclear Iran.

    “This is a lie peddled by partisan opponents of Senators Obama and Biden and we will not tolerate anyone questioning Senator Biden’s 35-year record of standing up for the security of Israel,” Biden’s press secretary, David Wade, said in a statement.

    “Joe Biden’s first trip as a senator was to Israel. He has worked with every Israeli leader from Golda Meir to Prime Minister Olmert, and he takes a back seat to no one when it comes to protecting the relationship between Israel and the US,” Wade added. “Senator Biden has consistently stated – publicly and privately – that a nuclear Iran would pose a grave threat to Israel and the United States and that we must prevent a nuclear Iran.”

    Wade noted that only two months ago, in a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations committee – which Biden heads – the senator reiterated his long-held view on this subject by stating that “Iran’s acquisition of a nuclear weapon would dramatically destabilize an already unstable region and probably fuel a nuclear arms race in the region. It is profoundly in our interest to prevent that from happening.”

    Biden has a solid 36-year Senate record of pro-Israel leadership. He has called Israel “the single greatest strength America has in the Middle East” and declared himself a Zionist in an interview with a US Jewish television channel last year, saying that “you don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist.”

    Tell me again how Obama has America’s interests first before Israel’s! Biden has declared himself a Zionist!

20. Richard Steven Hack Says:
    September 2nd, 2008 at 2:34 am

    And if Bush doesn’t attack Iran, read what Israel intends to do.

    Report: Israel won’t allow a nuclear Iran
    http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1219913194872&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

    Money Quotes:

    Israel will not allow Iran to attain nuclear capability and if time begins to run out, Jerusalem will not hesitate to take whatever means necessary to prevent Iran from achieving its nuclear goals, the government has recently decided in a special discussion.

    According to the Israeli daily Ma’ariv, whether the United States and Western countries succeed in thwarting the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions diplomatically, through sanctions, or whether a US strike on Iran is eventually decided upon, Jerusalem has begun preparing for a separate, independent military strike.

    So far, Israel has not received American authorization to use US-controlled Iraqi airspace, nor has the defense establishment been successful in securing the purchase of advanced US-made warplanes which could facilitate an Israeli strike.

    The Americans have offered Israel permission to use a global early warning radar system, implying that the US is pushing Israel to settle for defensive measures only.

    Because of Israel’s lack of strategic depth, Jerusalem has consistently warned in recent years that it will not settle for a ‘wait and see’ approach, merely retaliating to an attack, but will rather use preemption to prevent any risk of being hit in the first place.

    Ephraim Sneh a veteran Labor MK who has recently left the party, has reportedly sent a document to both US presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama. The eight-point document states that “there is no government in Jerusalem that would ever reconcile itself to a nuclear Iran. When it is clear Iran is on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons, an Israeli military strike to prevent this will be seriously considered.”

    According to Ma’ariv, Sneh offered the two candidates the “sane, cheap and the only option that does not necessitate bloodshed.” To prevent Iran’s nuclear aspirations, Sneh wrote, “real” sanctions applied by the US and Europe were necessary. A total embargo in spare parts for the oil industry and a total boycott of Iranian banks would promptly put an end to the regime, which is already pressured by a sloping economy and would be toppled by the Iranian people if they have outside assistance, he said.

    The window of opportunity Sneh suggests is a year and a half to two years, until 2010.

    Sneh also visited Switzerland and Austria last week in an attempt to lobby them against the Iranian threat. Both countries have announced massive long-term investments in Iranian gas and oil fields for the next decade.

    “Talk of the Jewish Holocaust and Israel’s security doesn’t impress these guys,” Sneh said wryly.

    Hearing his hosts speak of their future investments, Sneh replied quietly “it’s a shame, because Ido will light all this up.” He was referring to Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, the recently appointed IAF commander and the man most likely to be the one to orchestrate Israel’s attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, should this become a necessity.

    “Investing in Iran in 2008,” Sneh told his Austrian hosts, “is like investing in the Krupp steelworks in 1938, it’s a high risk investment.” The Austrians, according to Sneh, turned pale.

21. Richard Steven Hack Says:
    September 2nd, 2008 at 2:40 am

    And finally, there is currently a rumor going around the more right wing conspiracy oriented sites that Israel intended to launch an air strike on Iran from Georgian air bases during the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia. Unfortunately for Israel, the speed and severity of the Russian response was a disaster for the plan, and it was called off.

    I emphasize that I haven’t seen anything solid from any more reliable sources, so this is strictly a rumor. But it is a rumor that makes some sense. Israel could have attacked Iran from Georgia, avoiding the need for US permission to overfly Iraq on the way to their targets. And Israel supplies Georgia with hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment and training advisers – asking Georgia to allow Israel to make use of one of their air bases would have made sense in return. There is little reason Georgia would refuse such a request.

    According to the rumor, the Russians managed to capture quite a bit of US military hardware – and Israeli hardware – and Israeli secret information concerning the Iran air strike from the Georgians. Reportedly, both the US and Israel are having apoplexy over the loss of top secret data and the failure of the plan.

    Again, I emphasize that I don’t have any reliable sources for this rumor.

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