Sarah Palin has more executive experience than the Democratic ticket. Yet what does that experience tell us? If we can believe the Alaska papers, it shows a Bush-like tendency to regard political loyalty as the most important qualification in a subordinate and a belief that the best route to leadership is not experience or intelligence but “guts” or “heart.” A round-up of our post-Palin-pick posts.
- Palin asks all the city’s top managers to resign as a test of loyalty to her, imposes gag order on city department heads
- Firings include elimination of position of city historian and sacking of museum staff.
- Can tell how loyal someone is by looking in her heart
- Executive experience might vary in quality and relevance depending on the size of the electorate for whom you’re providing executive service
- These are more important things to know and say about her than her past as beauty queen
UPDATED 9/2 to add:
- You too can vet Palin!
- A secessionist for VP
- Oy, with the concern trolling
- More secessionism (“Mark Kleiman can vet” edition)
UPDATED 9/3 TO ADD
The Edge of the American West 
47 comments
September 1, 2008 at 9:54 am
Neddy Merrill
I think Palin is not actually a person; she’s some sort of political simulation designed to test our responses:
September 1, 2008 at 10:23 am
Martin Wisse
More important? Perhaps, but not as long as the McCain campaign seem to think it’s this that qualifies her for the vice presidency….
September 1, 2008 at 10:26 am
Neddy Merrill
Thank God a McCain presidency would save other teenagers from making such an agonizing choice.
September 1, 2008 at 11:29 am
Jason B
I’m sure Governor Palin, as a responsible conservative parent with strong family values, taught her daughter that only abstinence will prevent one from getting pregnant. Prophylactic measures are certainly unnecessary in such a case, and the teaching of their existence and use could cause young people to become sexually active and possibly even preg–
Well, look how that worked out for her.
September 1, 2008 at 11:42 am
bitchphd
I realize that this is totally reactionary and sexist of me. But.
Who the fuck takes a job that’s going to catapult them and their family into the national spotlight while their 17-yo daughter is in the middle of an unplanned pregnancy??? Jesus fuck.
September 1, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Artemis
I like that we’re supposed to think publicly about her son going to Iraq and her youngest with Down syndrome, but they ask us to please respect their teenager’s privacy. When your family is your biggest asset (other than the loyalty you describe in the post), you don’t get to ask for privacy on this score.
September 1, 2008 at 12:16 pm
SEK
Lucky for you, B., you have some feminist cred.
September 1, 2008 at 12:35 pm
bitchphd
I think that Hilzoy’s got it right on this one, to be honest.
September 1, 2008 at 12:38 pm
drip
Yeah lucky for all of us because its, you know, all part of god’s plan, right?
September 1, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Matthew Yglesias » Executive Experience
[…] at Edge of the American West they have a useful roundup of their posts on Sarah Palin’s “executive experience” and what people might want […]
September 1, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Sybil Vane
Agree with B re: agreeing with Hilzoy. I don’t like the way any narrative that really leverages this story can go anyway. No one here really wants to suggest that they can tell anything abotu her parenting from this, right? Nor that her mothering tells us a lot about her VP cred?
September 1, 2008 at 1:07 pm
ari
Right, Palin’s kids are none of our business. Full stop.
September 1, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Ben Alpers
And luckily, Sarah Palin’s public record is providing us with plenty of material to focus on instead…like indicted Sen. Ted Stevens’ 527 on which she served as a director.
September 1, 2008 at 1:49 pm
drip
Palin’s kids are none of our business. Full stop. I agree fully with this sentiment. No one should use their children as excuses for behavior or as qualifications for office.
I assume the McCainiacs will realize this and we will be spared the agony of stories about Iraq deployments, the travails of raising disabled children and how proud folks are of how well all those Palin children behave.
September 1, 2008 at 1:59 pm
bitchphd
There is a difference between, say, explaining how one’s personal experience and/or family life has shaped one’s public views (e.g., the travails of raising disabled children as a subject for public discussion) and using *other people’s* children–particularly when those children have done or experienced something that’s socially stigmatized–as weapons against the parents. I mean, come on.
September 1, 2008 at 2:19 pm
ana
Agreed. kids are completely off the table. I dread thinking about what the next few months are going to be like for Bristol Palin. I can’t shake the image in my head of her on that stage in Dayton holding the baby, perhaps to hide her own pregnancy, and maybe realizing just then (it is my understanding that the Palin children didn’t know about the VP thing until that morning) what her next few months might be like.
September 1, 2008 at 2:41 pm
drip
bphd, I doubt we disagree on how to treat children. The difference between what Palin did and her detractors did is clear. Palin brought her children up as a qualification for the office she seeks. When you use your personal experience with your own children as support for a more general position, you run the risk of exploiting your children. This is what Palin did. When you talk about other peoples children, you are at best a gossip and perhaps a sociopath. This is what her detractors did with the pregnancy story. Both things are ugly; neither excuses the other. Don’t talk about other peoples kids unless you’re asked, and then think twice. Bragging about your family when running for public office requires care. Palin was not careful with her children.
September 1, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Ahistoricality
Here’s the problem, though: Palin’s policy statements on family, education, sex and contraception, and abortion are issues, legitimate and problematic, but it’s going to be damned hard to bring up any of those without it being seen as a coded reference to her own family problems.
September 1, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Sybil Vane
I don’t see how it matters here whether Palin was careful with her children or not. Obama had his children interviewed by Access Hollywood. Presidential campaigns involve children in ways that are almost always exploitative. Probably no one should run for president if she wants to be as careful with her children as possible. But so what? Even if she leverages her children as qualification for office I can’t begin to imagine how a pregnant 17yr old is a disqualification for office for any thinking person.
September 1, 2008 at 4:02 pm
bitchphd
It seems to me, too, that she wasn’t careful. But that’s neither here nor there when it comes to what people who aren’t her do (or don’t) have the right to do, you know?
I disagree about the policy statements thing. I think those are absolutely and completely fair game, and I think it’s quite easy to discuss them without dogwhistling.
September 1, 2008 at 4:06 pm
dana
With any luck, Palin will have to be a little less strident about family planning and abortion and all of that this year.
In any case, policy is always fair game. Her daughter, though, isn’t.
September 1, 2008 at 4:10 pm
bitchphd
I just finished reading No Country For Old Men. The book, much more than the movie, makes the point that doing the decent thing can get you killed when you’re up against someone who doesn’t have that inhibition. It’s a really disturbing boo.
September 1, 2008 at 4:20 pm
bitchphd
k.
September 1, 2008 at 4:22 pm
dana
I may throw up a post on this later. I don’t think anyone’s done anything wrong here at all, on the assumption that Bristol’s making her own decisions. (And there’s no reason to think a pro-life girl can’t want a baby.) It must have been horrible for Bristol to have to tell her parents. It’s never easy. And I think the only thing that would have made me feel worse at seventeen than being pregnant and having to tell my parents is if my mom had to give up her job because of me. So I can’t really blame Palin either.
I think it’s harder still to argue that it reveals something interesting about policy.
September 1, 2008 at 4:56 pm
andrew
What do you think of this approach?
September 1, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Ahistoricality
Dana: And I think the only thing that would have made me feel worse at seventeen than being pregnant and having to tell my parents is if my mom had to give up her job because of me.
Nobody’s argued that Palin should resign as Governor; running for VP is likely to alter family dynamics, due to the requirements of campaigning, public scrutiny, etc.
bitchphd: doing the decent thing can get you killed when you’re up against someone who doesn’t have that inhibition.
So? Either self-preservation trumps decency, and you admit that you’re only pretending to be civilized, or it doesn’t and you accept the risk that comes along with living within ethical and legal consistency.
September 1, 2008 at 5:28 pm
dana
It’s a distinction without a difference to my mind, Ahistoricality.
andrew, I’m not sure. It’s obviously right — one can’t talk of Bristol making a choice unless she really had one*, and under the sort of policies her mother likes, she wouldn’t — but I think one that looks ultimately like a ‘gotcha’. Hard to say.
*Comments invoking Frankfurt get banninated.
September 1, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Theresa
Sarah Palin’s judgment became my business when she accepted John McCain’s offer. She chose to take a high profile position campaigning across this country for the next two months while her teenage daughter is pregnant and her newborn son is (where?). Someone will suffer in this transaction (mother, child or child). I am a feminist mother, but even I understand what I sacrafice and what my children miss when we are not together. To think that you would subject your pregnant 17 yr old to the glare of the spotlight and the judgment of the whole nation (good or bad, people judge public figures and their families) doesn’t seem to be a very loving act nor in line with family values. My mother left my 16 yr old sister in a home for unwed mothers when she was pregnant and their relationship has been forever damaged. It DOES matter. Parents (not just mothers) make choices about their jobs every day, sometimes electing not to take the promotion or reach for the next rung on the ladder because of their children. While it’s her personal choice to make, it is not one I would make and not one I would agree with. I won’t vote for this ticket based on that alone. I vote for Sarah to go back to Alaska to run that state and be with her children who need her. That, to me, is pro-LIFE and pro-Family.
September 1, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Matt Weiner
Comments invoking Frankfurt get banninated.
Are you saying that Bristol doesn’t have a chip in her head that would’ve been activated if she were about to choose an abortion?
September 1, 2008 at 6:00 pm
bitchphd
So?
So nothing. I’ve already said what I think re. Palin.
September 1, 2008 at 6:04 pm
bitchphd
Andrew’s link is awesome. And it addresses one of the big things about choice that was articulated for me last week by a young woman who works for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice–that denying women choice is denying them moral agency. Which you’d think people who are concerned about morality would be loathe to do.
September 1, 2008 at 6:09 pm
bw
A really disturbing boo. (@ 1:06.)
September 1, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Liberal Radio: Episode 355 at Bruno and the Professor
[…] Anbar … John Kerry’s surprisingly good convention speech … Sarah Palin’s governing problems Filed under: Podcast […]
September 1, 2008 at 7:06 pm
foolishmortal
B@4:10: Wasn’t the last fifth of that book brilliant? Didn’t the Tommy Lee Jones casting seem even more inspired after the monologues in the book? Could the film have been better with them monologues narrated over West Texas landscapes? That last one might be a bit dubious. WRT “a really disturbing boo”, McCarthy’s gentlest book is post-apocalypse. I’m currently reading Blood Meridian, which makes Mr. Chigurh look like an Eagle Scout. More fancy lit stuff, too.
September 1, 2008 at 7:38 pm
bitchphd
I haven’t read any other McCarthy, but I might now. I like that laconic westerrn thing.
Tommy Lee Jones was really good–all the casting was good. But in the book I kinda thought Llewyllen and his wife and her mama were black.
September 1, 2008 at 9:27 pm
dana
The Road by McCarthy is also brilliant, if very disturbing.
September 1, 2008 at 9:45 pm
andrew
On McCarthy, I liked All the Pretty Horses mostly as a sort of “action” novel. The Crossing seemed more literary – yes, I’m using value-laden terms here, but I’m not sure how else to describe the difference – and while I liked it, I never got into it to the same extent. Maybe I’m just afraid of difficulty. I also felt like I should read more of the history of the U.S.-Mexico border. I’ve had the third book in the border trilogy for years, but though I started it after finishing the first two, I’ve never read more than a chapter or two.
I’m sure I’ll get to The Road and No Country sometime.
September 2, 2008 at 2:37 am
gasdocpol
This is all part of a pattern. John McCain has once again shot from the hip in picking a running mate.
McCain was called “Punk McNasty “in high school, he had “trainwreck weekends” in Annapolis, hard partying risk-taking flyboy, superstiious, compulsive gambler with an anger management problem in the US Senate.
McCain may have been picturesque until now ,but if ,God forbid he became President ,it would get real ugly real fast.
September 2, 2008 at 6:27 am
Stephen Zimmett
Give me a break. Palin for VP. Obama pointed out last night on CNN that Palin’s budget was 12 million for the entire town she governed.
Obama’s campaign spent that much in one month.
Executive experience??
Been to Iraq ONCE. Probably doesn’t know the names of presidents of other countries.
One heart beat away from President. I surely would feel safer with Biden in that position that Palin.
September 2, 2008 at 7:16 am
Timothy Burke
Re: No Country For Old Men. It may be that doing the decent thing when you’re up against someone with no principles gets you killed real fast, but trying to be unprincipled when you’ve got no practice at it is probably equally a quick road to disaster. That’s the Bernard Goetz fantasy at work in a new context: if only I carried a gun and didn’t take shit from punks, I’d never have to worry again.
Anyway, as per this post, I don’t think anybody needs to talk about Palin’s family. There are enough issues in her actual record as an elected official. For that matter, focusing on Palin too much is a mistake no matter what the issue is: McCain, and McCain’s photocopy perfect commitment to the Bush record, are the issues that matter. Palin’s a distraction, and maybe was intended to be such. Dan Quayle was as bad a pick for VP as any candidate ever made, and it didn’t kill George H.W. Bush’s chances for victory. The point about Palin should be simply, “McCain is careless and impulsive, and that’s just more bad on top of his sycophantic embrace of the Bush Presidency”.
September 2, 2008 at 8:17 am
ari
Fortunately, Professor Burke, the Obama campaign is hewing to the line you suggest. The rest of us, meanwhile, can point out some flaws in his judgment.
September 2, 2008 at 8:46 am
SomeCallMeTim
The point about Palin should be simply, “McCain is careless and impulsive, and that’s just more bad on top of his sycophantic embrace of the Bush Presidency”.
I don’t know about about “simply.” There are a lot of relevant points about McCain that relate to Palin. These include:
* We care about Palin’s current ability to do the job because McCain is old as fuck and at risk for death or dementia.
* Relatedly, given Palin’s lack of preparation and lack of national stature, she will inevitably be dependent on McCain’s advisors. Who are they? Oh, wait, they’re the same neocons that fucked us the last time around?
* McCain may have a reputation for being an independent, but he’s owned by the (southern conservative/fundamentalist/etc.) base, as demonstrated by the Palin pick. John McCain really is more of the same, because his base is George Bush’s base.
September 2, 2008 at 8:49 am
Matt Weiner
trying to be unprincipled when you’ve got no practice at it is probably equally a quick road to disaster.
That could be the real lesson of No Country for Old Men (the movie, I haven’t read the book). [SPOILERS, of course] For a while it looks like Llewellyn gets in trouble for doing the decent thing by going back to give the dying man water, but in fact the only effect is that he’s alerted; if he hadn’t the only difference is that Chigurh (or the Mexican gangsters) would’ve tracked him down using the transmitter and killed him and Carla Jean all unsuspecting. And I’m not sure that Llewellyn particularly suffers for doing the decent thing at any other point either. The only signally decent characters are Tommy Lee Jones and Carla Jean; Jones survives unscathed, and Carla Jean dies because Llewellyn insists on continuing his fight with Chigurh. In the meantime, Woody Harrelson and the guys who hire him all try to beat Chigurh at his game and wind up very dead.
Eagleton was definitely worse than Quayle, wasn’t he? Honestly I think the Alaska Independence Party might put Palin into that category. Otherwise, though, I agree: Keep hammering McCain.
September 2, 2008 at 11:05 am
Timothy Burke
SCMT, those are all things to hammer on too.
Hey, Ari, does having an opinion about what’s politically wise or savvy make you a “concern troll”? If so, then you know what? Concern trolling about concern trolling strikes me as even worse.
September 2, 2008 at 11:19 am
ari
I really wasn’t talking to you, though I can understand how you would have thought I was. And I’m sorry about that. But really, I was part of a series of conversations elseblog that prompted my post.
September 2, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Timothy Burke
Sorry. Doesn’t matter how long we’ve all been doing this kind of stuff, sooner or later we react to something that was meant in jest, or in fun, as if it were serious. My bad.
September 3, 2008 at 8:53 am
SomeCallMeTim
In support of my point above: