August 31, 2008
Tale of the Tape (John Feehery)
In this corner, we have the wonder of Chicago, the silky left-hander, born in Hawaii, raised in Indonesia, educated at Harvard, Barack “The One” Obama.
In the other corner, we have the citizen-mom, the feisty point-guard, born in Alaska, raised in Alaska, educated in Idaho, Sarah “The Barracuda” Palin.
Well, this should be an interesting brawl. “The One” is heavily favored, having been running for President for at least a decade. “The Barracuda”, who recently gave birth to her fifth child, only learned last week that she would be on the ticket.
Let’s take a look at their records.
Obama has one loss in his career. He took on Congressman Bobby Rush in a Chicago primary, and got trounced. He learned from that mistake to not take on the political powers that be in Chicago. He has Chicago’s big power brokers, from da Mayor to the soon-to-be indicted Governor of Illinois, in his corner.
Palin is undefeated. She has taken on Alaska’s political establishment and beaten them each tim. She beat an incumbent Governor from her own party, Frank Murkowski, in a primary and she has never looked back. She does not have Alaska’s power brokers, including indicted Senator Ted Stevens, in her corner.
Obama was influential in passing an ethics reform package in Illinois, although Illinois’s ethics have not noticeably improved in that state. Palin passed a landmark ethics bill in her state, and it has worked to clean up a state that needed cleaning up.
Obama has some ethics problems of his own. His chief fundraiser in his early political days, Tony Rezko was convicted of bribery. Rezko gave Obama his political start, and helped him buy a big house in Chicago.
Palin also has an ethic controversy. She has been accused of firing a state employee unfairly. The allegation goes that the state employee wouldn’t fire a cop who had been married to Palin’s sister, so Palin fired him. Sounds bad, until you hear that the cop threatened to kill her sister and her dad.
Obama’s executive experience was as editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Palin’s executive experience was as Mayor of a tiny town in Alaska and then Governor of Alaska. There, she successfully fought to lower taxes and cut spending. She enjoys popularity ratings of 80%
Obama’s legislative experience is two terms in the Illinois State Senate and a partial term in the United States Senate. In the Illinois State Senate, he was known for voting “present” over a hundred times in legislative voted. In the US Senate, he was rated as having the most liberal voting record by the respected political magazine National Journal.
Palin’s legislative experience is as a member of the PTA.
Obama has been to Iraq, Afghanistan (where he played basketball), Israel, Jordan, Germany, France and UK (and I am sure other places). He addressed 200,000 Berliners over the summer, right after a rock concert.
He served as Chairman of subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs Committee. His subcommittee did no legislative work when he was Chairman. No hearings, no markups, nothing.
Palin has been to Kuwait and Canada.
Obama dodges questions about when life begins and when abortion shouldn’t be permitted, saying that is for someone at a “higher pay grade.”
Palin believes life starts at conception.
Obama belonged to a church where the pastor regularly condemned America and its racist past, and once said “God Damned America” in a famous YouTube clip. Obama later distanced himself from that pastor.
Palin is an evangelical Christian who used to be a member of the Pentacostal Church, some of whose members sometimes speak in tongues.
Obama has been on Meet the Press countless times. Palin has never been on Meet the Press.
Obama has two adorable daughters who have been featured both in People Magazine and at the Democratic convention. Obama’s wife once said that the success of her husband’s Presidential campaign made her proud for the first time.
Palin has five children, including a son who is in the Army and stationed in Iraq, and a young daughter who has Down’s syndrome. Palin’s husband is part Eskimo and is now a stay at home dad, but used to work in the oil industry.
This should be an interesting battle between two relative newcomers to the political boxing ring. Neither has much experience. Both are beloved by their political base. Of course, one is running for President, while the other one is on the undercard for Vice President, so it unlikely that they would ever get into a debate. But if they ever did, I bet it would be a good one.
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But, but, but Obama wants "change" and offers "hope". Who cares that he has no experience?
Comment by John Simmons — August 31, 2008 @ 1:23 pm
It will be interesting when the news that Sarah "No Pill" Palin covered up her daughter's pregnancy breaks.
Comment by Will — August 31, 2008 @ 1:37 pm
Obama's Hammas endorsement does not cut it anymore. Let's make a safe, patriotic choice and go for all-American girl Sarah Palin who can defend herself with M16, fly an airplane, manage a budget, hunt moose, handle corrupt politicians, etc. over the exotic boxer, dancer with truth Barack "BS" abu Hussein bin Obama.
Comment by Misha — August 31, 2008 @ 2:51 pm
Obama promised the moon in his speech yet his record of achievement is non-existent. Compared to Palin, he is simply not credible. Who in their mind can believe that Obama will deliever on his lofty promises and cut taxes of the 95% of the taxpayers? Anybody who looks at the numbers has to conclude he is a liar. Palin took on her own party and corrupt special interests and won. Her lifetime of underpromising, overdelivering and getting rid of corruption and waste on every level (like the governor's jet) speaks for itself. In Obama's case, he is the one who speaks for himself (and he is the one he's been waiting for). Other than Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers nobody will vouch that he will deliver because there is no there there.
Comment by Igor R. — August 31, 2008 @ 3:24 pm
Will, since you're so sure, you don't happen to be the cause of her daughter's supposed pregnancy? Or her doctor? Otherwise, how would you know?
Comment by Igor R. — August 31, 2008 @ 3:25 pm
John:
While you continue your fluffing of Gov Palin, here are some MSM reactions:
Denver Post:
Yes, John McCain, who argues with a straight face that Barack Obama’s 12 years in the Illinois legislature and U.S. Senate aren’t enough to qualify him to run for president, has picked a running mate who just two years ago was serving as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, population 5,470. In short, the presumptive Republican nominee, an Old Soldier in all senses of that term, drafted the political equivalent of the Unknown Soldier as his co-pilot. McCain’s pick of Palin jettisons his attack that Obama isn’t ready to lead and looks more like a desperate “Hail Mary” campaign tactic aimed at female voters
NYT:
He was looking for someone who was well prepared to fight against international Islamic extremism, the transcendent issue of our time. And in the end he decided that in good conscience, he was not going to settle for anyone who had not been commander of a state national guard for at least a year and a half. He put down his foot!…I do feel kind of ticked off at the assumptions that the Republicans seem to be making about female voters…The idea that women are going to race off to vote for any candidate with the same internal plumbing is both offensive and historically wrong.
(Ron Fournier - yes, THAT Ron Fournier!):
"She is younger and less experienced than the first-term Illinois senator, and brings an ethical shadow to the ticket. Just 20 months ago, she was mayor of Wasia, Alaska, a town of 6,500 where the biggest issue is controlling growth and the biggest annual worry is whether there will be enough snow for the Iditarod dog-mushing race… Palin’s lack of experience flies in the face of GOP charges that Obama is not ready to be commander in chief. McCain himself has said he was determined to avoid a pick like Dan Quayle, the little-known Indiana senator George H.W. Bush put on his ticket in 1988 in a choice that proved embarrassing…But, as McCain suggested himself, his 72nd birthday is a reminder that age and experience matter.
And remember, according to Fox and Cindi, she is well versed in international affairs due to the fact that AK is next to Russia!!…LOL
McCain only met her ONCE, what does it say about the old man's judgement..Olympia Snowe would have been problematic..but a beauty queen and mayor of Wasilla?
Comment by Theard — August 31, 2008 @ 3:55 pm
The truly bad candidate of a failed party isn't really likely to make a good decision. If he wasn't stupid he wouldn't be a republican
Comment by pghremodeler — August 31, 2008 @ 4:14 pm
Igor-
picture of Palin with first child, 7 months:
http://members.aol.com/gregindel/pregnantpalin.jpg
picture of Palin "supposedly" 8 months pregnant this spring:
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/9515/3073504041standaloneprovb5.jpg
At the same time, her daughter was "sick" with mono for 7 months.
The national enquirer has picked this up. Let the tabloids break her the way they broke Edwards.
Comment by Will — August 31, 2008 @ 7:17 pm
Obama looks like a fool from foolsville Chicago Corruption machine. This will be fun. I think the DNC is very jealous. Hillary Clinton was thrown under the Bus and Obama will throw God under the Bus to benefit his on skin.
Comment by Ann Chamberlain — August 31, 2008 @ 7:58 pm
There is only one question: What successful public policy initiative, foreign or domestic has been proposed by the republican party since, 1981?
Comment by pghremodeler — August 31, 2008 @ 11:03 pm
Will — consider this:
Age of Mother Frequency of
Down Syndrome
20 1 in 1667
25 1 in 1250
30 1 in 952
35 1 in 378
36 1 in 289
37 1 in 224
38 1 in 173
39 1 in 136
40 1 in 106
41 1 in 82
42 1 in 63
43 1 in 49
44 1 in 38
45 1 in 30
Source: The American College of Obstetrics and Gynocology
(based on data published in the Journal of the American Medical
Association 1981;58:282-285 and 1983;249:2034-2038). Other
published sources have somewhat different risk ratios, but the
trend of increasing risk with the mother's age is the same.
Your theory is not only offensive, it is unlikely to the point of being preposterous. Next time, do some research and don't just pick up the first smear you find.
Comment by John_N — August 31, 2008 @ 11:13 pm
fool from foolsville
lol
Comment by Will — September 1, 2008 @ 12:04 am
Will #8 — Are you the same fool who is trying to argue that McCain can't be President because he was born in the Panama Canal? God, you liberals are desperate!
Comment by John Simmons — September 1, 2008 @ 8:17 am
The bottom line is McCain is 72 year old and has health problems and could die today or tomorrow! When this sinks in and people start to reflect and consider what a President Palin REALLY means due to her very real lack and inexperience of national and international issues, policies and procedures, and her intellectual capacity or incapacity, people in all good conscience — whether she is good looking or not, whether they like her personally or not — for the safety and welfare of this country, will be unable to and will not vote for McCain. He has made a colossal mistake in judgment.
Media claim they no nothing of Barack Obama — however, they Really know nothing about Sarah Palin; let the vetting begin since John McCain did not vet her before he picked her! Great Judgment John.
Comment by angellight — September 1, 2008 @ 8:55 am
Excuse me, but why are you contrasting Palin with Obama? The last time I looked, Palin was in the Vice Presidential slot.
Comment by T Brinnand — September 1, 2008 @ 12:38 pm
Never mind. I just figured it out: because McCain is irrelevant.
Comment by T Brinnand — September 1, 2008 @ 12:41 pm
Did Janet Reno knock-up Palin's daughter? You people are insults to the rest of us.
Comment by pghremodeler — September 1, 2008 @ 2:08 pm
I am trying to figure whether the neocon idealogues here actually believe in their crock of doo-doo or are they simply delusional?
they are now trying to compare Palin to Obama, if Palin becomes prez, will Winnie the Pooh be VP?
The woman has no experience in international affairs, she is a bad example to the purity trolls or the family values lot, she's being investigated for multiple firings
What did you guys figure, that she would not be vetted?
I am trying to figure out the logic here..
is she cute? check
is she pro-life? CHECK!
is she pro-gun? CHECK!
she is a woman..Check!!!!!…hoorah Palin for VP!!
Comment by Theard — September 1, 2008 @ 3:27 pm
Theard, is she a corruption fighter who took on corruption in her own party and won? Check. Did she take on the oil companies and won? Check. You're trying to portray her as a purely idealogical creature, but she is uncorrupted and a reformer. She is a lot more exciting than Pawlenty or Romney because of her raw energy and idealism.
Comment by Igor R. — September 1, 2008 @ 6:44 pm
John
Baracuda has devoured the One already. Baracuda has stood up to the big boys, the oil cos. & her own party. She has been a natural leader. She has what it takes be VP. Sen MCCain will do fine with the Gov from AK, Sarah Palin!
Comment by JFK-HRC — September 1, 2008 @ 11:41 pm
palin is on the ticket to solidify the conservative base. she provides political cover for mccain to occupy the middle, where he truly comes from…eg. he's come to the middle on issue after issue already.
BTW, the middle has been left vacant by the Dems w/ their nomination of the utopian- marxist, barack hussein obama.
if mccain pisses-off the right and the left, then must be a centrist.
mccain/palin is pure rovian genius…
BTW, palin will hold up fine in a debate against biden. biden is half-bright and uninspiring. PALIN IS PURE AMERICAN.
Comment by ha ha dems! — September 2, 2008 @ 2:56 am
1980 - 1984
Obama: B.A. in political science with a specialization in international relations from Columbia University.
Palin: Wasilla High School, captain of the state-champion basketball team. Miss Wasilla, runner-up in the Miss Alaska pageant, also Miss Congeniality, although that is now disputed.
Him: Ivy League degree. Her: tiara.
1985 - 1990
Obama: moved to Chicago; became a community organizer as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization on Chicago's far South Side. During his three years as the DCP's director, its staff grew from 1 to 13 and its annual budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000, with accomplishments including helping set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization.
Moved to Boston to attend Harvard Law School. Selected as an editor and then elected president of the Harvard Law Review, a full-time volunteer position functioning as editor-in-chief and supervising the law review's staff of 80 editors.
Palin: Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism, with a minor in political science from the University of Idaho. Brief stint as a sports reporter for local Anchorage television stations; left to join her husband in commercial fishing.
Him: sterling legal education. Her: sportscaster.
1991 - 1995
Obama: graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School; received contract and advance to write a book ("Dreams from my Father") as well as a fellowship at the University of Chicago Law School. Directed the Illinois Project Vote from April to October 1992, a voter registration drive with a staff of 10 and 700 volunteers that achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, leading Crain's Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be. Appointed as a Lecturer in constitutional law at the University of Chicago. Joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 12-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development. Active in several community organizations, usually as a board member.
Palin: member of the Alasaka Indepence Party which advocates "Alaska First". Elected to Wasilla city council.
Him: Expert on our nation's fundamental legal principles. Her: plotted to leave the Union; thinks Pledge of Allegiance was written by our founding fathers.
Comment by Theard — September 2, 2008 @ 4:16 am
1996 - 2000
Obama: promoted to Senior Lecturer in constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. Elected to the Illinois Senate. Sponsored more than 800 bills. In 2000, lost a Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one.
Palin: elected as mayor of Wasilla (population 5,470), defeating the incumbent by a total of 616 votes to 413. Town budget, $8 million (3 millionths of the Federal budget), approximately 100 employees. Reduced property taxes but increased sales taxes. Fired the Wasilla police chief, citing a failure to support her administration. (He then sued Palin on the grounds that he was fired because he supported the campaign of Palin's opponent, but his suit was dismissed when the judge ruled that Palin had the right under state law to fire city employees, even for political reasons.) Hired a DC lobbyist to bring $8 million in earmarks to the city.
Him: sponsored 800 bills. Her: swayed 616 voters.
2001 - 2004
Obama: reelected in 2002 and became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee.
Publicly spoke out against the invasion of Iraq BEFORE the congressional authorization in 2002, and then again before the actual invasion in 2003.
Wrote and delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
November 2004: elected to the US Senate, receiving over 3.5 million votes, more than 70% of total.
Palin: elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors. Unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor, coming in second in a five-way race in the Republican primary, receiving 19,000 votes. Appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, served as chairman from 2003 to 2004 and also served as Ethics Supervisor. Resigned in protest over the "lack of ethics" of fellow Republican members. Exposed the state Republican Party's chairman, Randy Ruedrich, for doing party work on public time and working closely with a company he was supposed to be regulating. Director of Ted Stevens' 527 group.
Him: demonstrated the wisdom to oppose the Iraq folly before it even began. Her: hasn't really though much about it - despite the fact that 17 Alaskans have died there
2005 to present
Obama: Sworn in as the fifth-ever African-American U.S. senator. Worked with Republican Senator Lugar to author and implement a program to locate and dismantle stray Russian WMD's. Designated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as the party's point man on ethics. Worked with Russ Feingold to pass a major ethics/lobbying reform bill. Cosponsored, with John McCain, the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act. Called for increased fuel efficiency standards (3 percent every year for 15 years). Assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations, Veterans' Affairs, and Homeland Security. Chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on European Affairs. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. Waged a tremendous battle to become the Democratic presidential nominee. Currently manages 2,500 campaign employees and a budget of $40-$50 million/month.
Palin: 2005: board member, Valley Hospital Association, which runs the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in Wasilla.
Became youngest and first female Governor of Alaska, taking office in December, 2006. Auctioned off the Governor's jet on eBay. Took on fellow-Republican Senator Ted Stevens to come clean about the federal investigation into his financial dealings. Promoted oil and natural gas resource development in Alaska. Helped pass a tax increase on oil company profits. Formed a sub-cabinet group of advisers to address climate change but does not accept that it is man-made. Objected to listing polar bears as an endangered species because it might hurt oil and gas development in the bears' habitat. Was for the bridge to nowhere before she was against it. However, Alaska kept the federal money. Denied her daughter was pregnant before she confirmed it. Supported abstinence-only education.Currently under a bipartisan investigation for abuse of power for dismissing Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner. Commander-in-Chief of the Alaska National Guard, but has played no role in national defense activities, even when they involve the Alaska National Guard. (The entire operation is under federal control, and the governor is not briefed on situations.)
Obtained her first passport in 2007 to perform visits to the Alaska National Guard in Kuwait and Germany. (Foreign experience so limited that a stopover in Ireland listed on her resume.)
Him: Impressive figure on the national stage who knows how Congress works and is engaged with foreign policy issues. Her: small state governor for 21 months; "next to Russia", but that is just 1 of the 190 countries in the world she has never been to.
Comment by Theard — September 2, 2008 @ 4:19 am
"she a corruption fighter who took on corruption in her own party and won? ….but she is uncorrupted and a reformer."
Be careful Igor, she is finally being properly vetted….stay tuned..lol
Comment by Theard — September 2, 2008 @ 4:22 am