Posted on 09/03/2008 9:48:55 AM PDT by jazusamo
Now that the Democrats have recovered from the shock of Governor Sarah Palin's nomination as the Republican's candidate for vice president, they have suddenly discovered that her lack of experience in general— and foreign policy experience in particular— is a terrible danger in someone just a heartbeat away from being President of the United States.
For those who are satisfied with talking points, there is no need to go any further. But, for those who still consider substance relevant, this is an incredible argument coming from those whose presidential candidate has even less experience in public office than Sarah Palin, and none in foreign policy.
Moreover, if Senator Barack Obama is elected, he will not be a heartbeat away from the presidency, his would be the heartbeat of the president— and he would be the one making foreign policy.
But the big talking point is that the Democrats' vice-presidential nominee, Senator Joe Biden, has years of foreign policy experience as a member, and now chairman, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
That all depends on what the definition of "experience" is.
Before getting into that, however, a plain fact should be noted: No governor ever had foreign policy experience before becoming president— not Ronald Reagan, not Franklin D. Roosevelt, nor any other governor.
It is hard to know how many people could possibly have had foreign policy experience before reaching the White House.
Thomas Jefferson had been Secretary of State, but that was a while ago, and there has not been any other Secretary of State to become President of the United States.
Nor has any Secretary of Defense. The first President Bush had been head of the C.I.A., which certainly gave him a lot of knowledge of what was happening around the world, though still not experience in making the country's foreign policy.
Senator Joe Biden's years of service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is even further removed from foreign policy experience. He has had a front-row seat as an observer of foreign policy. But Senator Biden has never had any real experience of making foreign policy and taking the consequences of the results.
The difference between being a spectator and being a participant, with responsibility for the consequences of what you say and do, is fundamental.
You can read books about crime or attend lectures by criminologists, but you have no real experience or expertise about crime unless you have been a criminal or a policeman.
Although I served in the Marine Corps, I have no military experience in any meaningful sense. The closest I ever came to combat was being assigned to photograph the maneuvers of the Second Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
That was photographic experience, not military experience. If someone gave me a policy-making job in the Pentagon, I wouldn't have a clue.
Senator Joe Biden has for years listened to all sorts of people testify on all sorts of foreign policy issues. But that tells us nothing about how well he understood the issues or how valid his conclusions were.
Whatever his conclusions were, they were not put to the test because he did not make any foreign policy.
Out of the four presidential and vice-presidential candidates this year, only Governor Palin has had to make executive decisions and live with the consequences.
As for Senator Obama, his various pronouncements on foreign policy have been as immature as they have been presumptuous.
He talked publicly about taking military action against Pakistan, one of our few Islamic allies and a nation with nuclear weapons.
Barack Obama's first response to the Russian invasion of Georgia was to urge "all sides" to negotiate a cease-fire and take their issues to the United Nations. That is standard liberal talk, which even Obama had second thoughts about, after Senator John McCain gave a more grown-up response.
We should all have second thoughts about what is, and is not, foreign policy "experience."
“Whatever his conclusions were, they were not put to the test because he did not make any foreign policy.” It wuld be easy to remind ourselves of his views on Reagan’s policies... Since they were right (especially on the biggest issue- The Cold War) and Biden is a Dem, and I honestly can’t remember what he said then, I can safely assume he was wrong.
Nor are they likely to recover, any time soon. This was a shot to their solar plexus on many levels...
the infowarrior
I believe most of the Dems had the opposite view of handling the Cold War that Ronald Reagan had though like you I can’t specifically remember Biden’s, being a RAT I’m sure he took the RAT side.
You can add Canada also, BUT state governors DO NOT make foreign policy. (A Constitutional thing) I like Sarah Palin and I think she should be the first name on the ticket, but let's not exaggerate about areas where she doesn't have credentials; her executive experience and accomplishments are infinitely greater than obama and biden put together!
Thanks for the link. I would guess that the Alaskan governor specifically has to deal with Russia re security and territorial issues of fishing and such.
WHAT?????
Can you please cite your source for that statement? The USA, as yet, does not have a ballistic (your “nuclear”) missile defense system. We ARE working to develop one, AKA “Star Wars”, but it's few years away from deployment. What you may have heard of are some old NIKE anti-AIRCRAFT missile batteries, but SHE doesn't command them!
As I said in an earlier post, Sarah Palin is a great VP choice; and she has shown a genuine interest in the Alaska Guard (much more so than the obamanation has any units), but let's not exaggerate her credentials; they're strong enough without it!
Thomas Jefferson had been Secretary of State, but that was a while ago, and there has not been any other Secretary of State to become President of the United States.
James Monroe was Secretary of State under Madison, 1811-1817.John Quincy Adams was Secretary of State under Monroe.
So actually, it makes perfect sense for Secretary of State to be a springboard to the presidency of a federal government which exists almost solely for foreign relations/national security.
Well, there was James Buchanan who was Minister to both Russia & Great Britain prior to becoming President. He would have had the most important kind of foreign policy experience short of being Secretary of State. He is also universally regarded as the worst POTUS (or at least in the bottom 3 of most lists). This is a cautionary tale when judging 'experience' since 'on paper' some people look really good. There really isn't an alternative to 'experience' as long as you don't make a fetish of it.
Sowell is slipping a bit. During the first decades under the constitution, most presidents had been secretary of state. In fact, the office was considered the main stepping stone to the presidency. Monroe and JQ Adams come right to mind.
GMTA. Apparently, tho, only Jefferson, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams were Secretary of State before election to the presidency. But it definitely must have looked like the stepping stone to the presidency by the time Adams was elected POTUS.
Well said and it's a shame that in fact so many elected officials have forgotten that.
And as Mayor of New York, Giuliani had some foreign policy experience dealing with all the heads of state and other delegations that came because of the U.N..
But it is true that neither Obama nor Biden have any foreign policy experience.
It’s also true, although he doesn’t say it, that ANYBODY can be up to speed on most of the major issues that face us. I bet there are a LOT of people here at FR who have read enough stories, studied enough news and opinions and books, that they could hold their own in foreign policy debates with the average Senator and even a few Secretary’s of state.
ping!
This thesis examines the American defense policy decision to assign the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) portion of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) mission to units of the Colorado and Alaska National Guard.You are probably partly right that the terminology used (anti-nuclear missile battery) is faulty.
But the Alaska National Guard does have a direct role in the defense of our country, is on-guard 24/7, and IS under the command of the Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin.
So she DOES have control over part of our country's defensive missiles.
I can argue that experience isn’t as important as strength of character, indications of good judgment, and a sound philosophy.
What is clear though is that Obama, when arguing he had more “experience” than Palin, claimed that running his Presidential campaign counted as executive experience, even though his Campaign Manager actually runs the campaign (making his Campaign Manager more qualified for President than Barack Obama apparently).
You know a candidate doesn’t have experience when they use their campaign as the example of experience.
Correct. Yes, foreign policy experience (as opposed to a front seat in listening to foreign policy debate) is desirable. Most VP candidates do not have that. The most desirable one-two punch would be proven executive judgment at making decisions and experience, real experience, in foreign policy. Anyone with this type of experience would probably be bored to death as VP and would make a good candidate for president. And if I had to choose between the two, I’d go for judgment. Experience doesn’t mean that a person has good judgment. And experience is easier to pick up on the job.
John Quincy Adams was Secretary of State under Monroe.
Just read Sowell's piece on Townhall and came here to see if anyone else made this point. Well spotted. :)
Too true. I recall that when the foreign policy question first came up, some of his fans started using the fact that their hero actually spent most of his childhood outside of the United States (much of that time in Indonesia) as his "foreign policy" experience. Aside from the fact that this was ludicrous, it obviously called too much attention to Obambi's essentially foreign, non-American experience of life, not to mention that whole inconvenient Muslim thing. So they dropped that one quickly!
I guess now his foreign affairs experience consists of having given a couple of speeches in Europe.
Ike didn’t get along with De Gaulle. he once said that he had two crosses to bear, the Hakenkreuz of the Nazis and the Cross of Lorraine, hehehe.
Of course Ike spent a lot of time mediating the peace between his two best field commanders, Montgomery and Patton....who hated each other almost as much as they hated the enemy.
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