Matt Yglesias

38 Responses to “Inexperience is Inexperience”

1. scythia Says:
   September 3rd, 2008 at 10:41 am

   Kay Bailey Hutchison, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Jody Rell, and Condoleezza Rice all fail various conservative ideological litmus tests

   Which litmus tests would those be? Are there a lot of them? Do you have to take them all in a row?

2. pseudonymous in nc Says:
   September 3rd, 2008 at 10:42 am

   That Carleton Fiorina was talking about executive experience last night took the cake. Her reproductive organs didn’t have anything to do with how badly she fucked up HP.

3. MattM Says:
   September 3rd, 2008 at 10:50 am

   I haven’t seen Liddy Dole’s name mentioned once. I know she’s in a must-win Senate race, but as far as I know, she passes the ideological litmus tests.

4. CT Lover Says:
   September 3rd, 2008 at 10:52 am

   Jodi (with an “i”) Rell is the Governor of Connecticut. A couple months ago, you didn’t know that people from Connecticut are called “Nutmeggers.” I’m beginning to see a pattern.

5. socctty Says:
   September 3rd, 2008 at 11:03 am

   Matt, this decision to pick Palin didn’t go

   (1) what GOP women do we have
   (2) which is them is the most Bush-like?

   I think it was the other way around. Same difference, right? Well, it confuses the priorities. This pick was more about rallying the base than it was about picking off Hillay supporters. It was either Jindal or Palin, and criticisms of Jindal could draw the race card, but that would fall flat with them running against a black guy and all. Palin was perfect for their needs: they could levy the sexist card against Obama since Clinton had already made inroads there.

   But rest asssured, this was more about ideology and getting a foothold in the ground game and rallying around the culture war than it was about getting a woman in there. Palin being a woman just has the added benefit of a built-in reason to rally to her side with even more haste than normal.

6. neb Says:
   September 3rd, 2008 at 11:04 am

   Its despicable to see the gender card being played by the McCain camp when they were so critical at even the mention by Obama that he doesn’t look like other people on the dollar bill. Can we say double standard?

7. Tyro Says:
   September 3rd, 2008 at 11:09 am

   I haven’t seen Liddy Dole’s name mentioned once.

   Unlike Alaskan statehood, Chocolate chip cookies, and the GI Bill, she is older than John McCain.

8. G C Says:
   September 3rd, 2008 at 11:09 am

   I snagged video of Lieberman discussing Palin’s qualifications last night on MSNBC.

   http://gerrycanavan.blogspot.com/2008/09/lieberman-on-msnbc.html

   Andrea Mitchell: Do you feel Sarah Palin is qualified to be commander-in-chief if God forbid, something should happen to John McCain?

   Joe Lieberman: Well…you know…let’s assume the best (chuckles uncomfortably). John’s in great shape, he’s gonna be the president and let’s assume that nothing bad will happen…why should we? But if it does…yes, she’ll be ready.

9. NBarnes Says:
   September 3rd, 2008 at 11:12 am

   I’d love to see John McCain pressed for an on-the-record answer to why it was that Palin was picked ahead of those other GOP women. It’d be a hilarious exercise in avoiding the real answer.

10. Barbara Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 11:16 am

    I still really, really don’t understand why McCain didn’t pick Pawlenty. He probably would have become favored to win Minnesota (according to some polls I’ve seen) a real and tangible benefit that would seriously up his odds of winning overall, and Pawlenty might not excite women, but he would definitely keep the base enthralled in other states. I can’t believe that McCain rejected Pawlenty solely because he was too predictable, but if he did, geez, what does that say about McCain?

11. right Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 11:20 am

    I still really, really don’t understand why McCain didn’t pick Pawlenty. He probably would have become favored to win Minnesota (according to some polls I’ve seen)

    I think if McCain believed that, he would have picked him, but Pawlenty barely won re-election two years ago, and there was a giant bridge collapse since then. I don’t think Minnesota would have moved much if he picked him.

    I’d love to see John McCain pressed for an on-the-record answer to why it was that Palin was picked ahead of those other GOP women. It’d be a hilarious exercise in avoiding the real answer.

    Nah, he’d just talk about how she’s a “maverick”, a “reformer”, and a “real American”, just like him.

12. mark f Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 11:20 am

    It was either Jindal or Palin

    If that’s true, I wonder what McCain thought while watching the dueling coverage over the weekend between Jindal managing Hurricane Gustav, and the embarrassing revelations about Palin.

13. mark f Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 11:22 am

    Pawlenty barely won re-election two years ago

    And only got like 47% of the vote while doing so.

14. Ron E. Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 11:30 am

    But John McCain had to pick a woman

    He had to? Why exactly? Was somebody holding a gun to his head threatening to shoot him if he didn’t pick a woman? Surely the base would have been more than satisfied with a more experienced but pro-life man.

15. Jeffrey Davis Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 11:36 am

    Palin’s pretty and conservative.

    Everything after that was, and is, irrelevant to the GOP.

16. LarryM Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 11:39 am

    I do think that many Dems aren’t playing the inexperience card carefully enough. (Though the Republicans are also making a mistake by overeaching with the silly claim that she is more experienced than Obama.) One point in particular – in terms of both optics and accuracy, I think it makes more sense to talk about her being unprepared rather than inexperienced.

    Lincoln was inexperienced but not unprepared – he spent years thinking, writing, and (famously) debating about the issues of the day. In his own way Obama has as well. Whatever one can say about Ms. Palin, it’s clear that she has devoted little if any thought to foriegn affairs, and not much more with regard to national level domestic politics.

    Ironically, there is some reason to belive that her natural instincts on foriegn affairs are … not bad (i.e., she seems to have some non-interventionist instincts) for a national level politician. But given that she is (mostly) an empty vessel on foriegn affairs, she will be succeptible to the worst excesses of the current imperial consensus. That she is being tutored on these issues by a man even more insane than McCain is not reassuring.

17. M Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 11:56 am

    Playing Exile in Guyville, my foobar just switched to ‘Ant in Alaska’, whose lyrics have vague ironic relevance to the GOP’s presumptive veep.

18. jibeaux Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 11:59 am

    As someone “represented” by Liddy Dole, she’s also dumber than a bag of hammers and has not, to my knowledge, been photographed with moose or with firearms or anything else that is totally cool.

19. Mary Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 12:34 pm

    LarryM has it exactly right. Palin is unprepared for national office. That is why she needs the intense cram courses and coaching. That is why she is slow-rolling the national press. You would think that if she had any interest or ambition for national public office, she would have started preparing before last week. This is also why hardly anyone had ever even heard of her before last week.

20. Reality Man Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 12:43 pm

    As someone “represented” by Liddy Dole, she’s also dumber than a bag of hammers

    Hey! What did a bag of hammers ever do to you?

21. pseudonymous in nc Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 12:45 pm

    I haven’t seen Liddy Dole’s name mentioned once.

    She’s also doing her best to lose a Senate seat in NC that, had she bothered showing up in the state once or twice over the past six years, would likely be uncompetitive, even this year.

22. David A Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 1:32 pm

    Matt, you say, “it’s very hard to imagine a man with such a short and unimpressive resume being picked.” Kain came within a whisker of being picked, and while I like the guy fine, his resume is almost as short and not much more impressive: Governor for three years (albeit Lt. Governor for four years) of a larger state, and mayor of a larger (but still not big) city.

23. Kenny B. Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 1:43 pm

    Having Dole in there might make McCain look younger.

    I think also, we’re all overlooking the fact that Palin is convenient, as he probably didn’t want a VP taller than him.

24. J Bean Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 2:00 pm

    On the contrary, as conservative elected officials were willing to admit yesterday it’s very hard to imagine a man with such a short and unimpressive resume being picked.

    But when Geraldine Ferraro said that she wouldn’t have been picked for VP if she hadn’t been a woman and that BO wouldn’t be considered as a serious candidate if he hadn’t been, um, you know, she was called a racist. Just pointing that out.

25. Benjamin Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 2:16 pm

    What fascinates me about picking Palin:

    While I disagree with her on most policy issues, Hutchison would have been a fearsome pick- Electoral success in one of the largest states, legislative efficacy (I say this as an expat Texas Democrat). And Snowe, who demonstrated an appreciable populist streak in her positions on the Bush tax cuts, would likely have swung more independents into the GOP column. I can’t identify a contribution to governance that Palin would bring to the table, and there were other much more viable, female Republican officeholders out there. I don’t get it.

26. bob Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 5:25 pm

    J Bean, there’s no comparison between getting elected as a party’s nominee and getting selected as the VP candidate.

    What test did Kay Bailey Hutchison fail?

27. betsy Says:
    September 3rd, 2008 at 10:39 pm

    I think Christie Whitman would attract a lot of positive attention – former governor, cabinet on the environment. Obviously they’re more interested in shoring up the base than attracting independents, which Whitman would do.
    I guess this is the cut-off-their-nose-to-spite-their-face strategy. I am grateful for it!

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