Good news and bad news

If they'd just let slip the rumor that Edwards was the real father of Trig Palin, the media silence would have been deafening... ;-)

PS Simon this isn't worthy of you

The bad news is that 49% of Americans are either idiots or work for the media

Don't do what New Yorkers did in '04
Chris

I do think it's bothersome if you think I'm some kind of lunatic for thinking that being a member of the US Senate is comparable to being Governor of Alaska for half a term. Alaska is the largest state in area, but has less than a tenth the population of my home state. As far as being the mayor of a town of less than 10,000, I would compare that to being in the Illinois senate, rather than to being a community organizer.

Lunatic, no. Somewhat muddled about their respective functions and operations, yes. In military terms, it's the difference between staff officers and line officers. Staff officers may make nice shiny policies, but line officers hold command and have to implement, administer, and live with those policies and their results day-by-day...and with those most affected by them.

At the local/county level, governing elected officials often act as BOTH line and staff officers. They are their own legislators within the legal bounds set for them, and they have to live with administering their decisions on the applied governing-executive level...and with their constituents on a daily basis.

You simply do not get that experience or perspective at the legislative level. A city councilperson of a mid-sized town probably gets more practical governing experience in a year than a state legislator does in ten. Perversely enough, smaller areas often provide more intense experience, having less staff structure to pawn off duties to. (A big-city mayor must perforce delegate near-entirely, a small-town mayor is hands on.)

Personally I think that legislators should be sentenced to required to spend an amount of time equal to at least half their time served in legislative office actually having to administer at the local/state level the results of the legislation they pass. I suspect that would radically improve the quality of both our legislators and our laws. I just haven't invented the time machine and longevity techniques such a policy requires. :-)

I agree wholeheartedly with you, WHQ. This shows mostly that the media is on its OWN side, because they've chosen to highlight every little thing that could possibly be questioned. That's what they do.

It's extremely insulting of Simon to suggest that most folks are nuts if they think the treatment Palin has gotten is fundamentally different than the kind of treatment other new political celebrities have gotten. I say that as someone who has spent the last few days defensing Palin from the most moronic overstatements. (And yes, one could argue that Obama got kid gloves for some time, but let's notice that he was not suddenly thrust from public obscurity to the doorstep of the white house.)

There's a fair amount of conflating what the media has reported with the most moronic one-sided blog arguments floated by partisans. I've seen lots of leftidiot bloggers try to make the unconvincing case that Palin is fundamentally inexperienced in a way that Obama is not. In fact, I ridiculed this argument in advance, as soon as Palin was announced. What I have seen from media reports is an accounting of a record that sounds a little thin because she's only 44. Personally, I like the pta-city council-mayor-governor progression. She hasn't been sitting around whittling.

Like you say, they have very comparable experience. I said this last Friday when she was announced, and there's really no way around that unless you're a partisan. Like you, I count their records as roughly equal.

BTW, you may remember me as bk from centerfield, my usual handle these days is kranky kritter.
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I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy for those who think, and a tragedy for those who feel. -Horace Walpole