Unqualified for Duty

One of the problems with modern political journalism is that when something manifestly absurd takes place, as long as there are people willing to argue both sides, our top reporters feel obliged to treat it as deserving of serious debate.

Case in point: John McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Palin would be spectacularly unqualified for the job of vice president even if McCain were immortal. But the prospect of her suddenly being thrust into the leadership of the free world has got to leave everyone but the most loyal, talking-point-equipped partisans deeply chilled.

This is not a question of her politics. And it has absolutely nothing to do with her gender. It's not even strictly speaking a question of experience. Conceivably, somebody with even less experience than Palin could meet what everyone should be able to agree is a basic requirement for the office: That she or he has given serious thought to the national and international issues of our time.

Is there any evidence that Palin is anything other than an utter neophyte when it comes to issues such as Iraq, the economy, health care, and domestic and foreign policy generally?

Palin's lack of the most basic prerequisite for the job should be the dominant message of the news coverage. Instead, her selection was hailed as a "bold move," with her lack of qualifications relegated to the status of a Democratic complaint. Instead, the media establishment has let itself get drawn into a number of alternate story lines, some of them certainly quite fascinating, but none of them as essential.

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What possible reason is there to nominate someone so lacking in gravitas for the vice presidency? In this case, of course, it couldn't be more obvious that Palin's selection has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with governance. Palin's gender and her hard-right credentials were clearly seen by McCain's top advisers as just what the campaign needed.

Whether that was a clever or suicidal political calculation remains to be seen. It's certainly looking more and more like it was a reckless one. But it doesn't just strain credulity -- it pulverizes it -- to suggest that she is the best and most qualified person McCain could find for the job.

It's a tremendous failure of political reporting that such patent spin from McCain supporters is being treated like a supportable position. By contrast, it seems to me that anyone suggesting that Palin was selected for anything other than political reasons should be considered presumptively a liar from this point on.

This is not a radical view. Here, for instance, is Richard Cohen on the Washington Post op-ed page yesterday:

Probably the most depressing thing about Palin is not her selection but the defense of it. It has produced a parade of GOP spokesmen intent on spiking the needle on a polygraph. Looking right into the camera, they offer statement after statement that they hope the voters will swallow but that history will forget. The sum effect on the diligent news consumer is a feeling of consummate contempt for the intelligence of the American people -- a contempt that will be justified should Palin be the factor that makes McCain a winner in November.

Even though the cable networks can find matched pairs of pundits to take opposite sides on just about anything, I can't help but think that the vast majority of political journalists recognize that there is something seriously out of whack with the Palin selection.

So it's time for our elite political reporters to look into their own heads and decide: Do you value what's in there? Or are you willing to report whatever people tell you?

This post originally appeared on the Watchdog Blog at NiemanWatchdog.org.

Comments

[Apov]

The Republicans are not really interested in real and effective governance.
That should be so very obvious looking back over the last eight years.
What they are really interested in is POWER.
They will do anything to get it.
Even selecting another Brownie.

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.

[Berliner2]

The fact that Palin was not dismissed off hand within two hours is deeply disturbing indeed.

[Susan60]

McCain violated the first rule of choosing a VP canidate: First, do no harm. And no one is talking about that. Instead, like Dan says, they find two opposing viewpoints and have at it. It's business as usual with the media, even though this judgement by McCain does great harm to this country.

[Vinca]

I just heard a C-Span caller complain about our porous borders, that neither party wants to do anything about, I AM FURIOUS< THAT NEITHER PARTY ADDRESS'S THAT< IT'S EXTREMELY IMPORTANT

[Toonadude]

Whether or not one is "qualified" is so old school. We now ask who is "best suited" to the position. Best to keep it entirely subjective and confirmable by one well-written (by others) speech. If something happens to McCain it's no big deal...... we just have Palin appoint a heavy hitter as her new VP and have that person serve as defacto President (have we seen that before?) and she serves as attractive figure head. It's all covered......you can move along now.....nothing to see here.

[Gidster]

Except that is not how it is supposed to work. The 25th amendment does not allow for power sharing
Cheney/Bush have added that to the extremely long list of Constitutional violations.
When McCain dies, Palin becomes President.
Period.
If she wants a defacto President, then she must resign!

[dadw5boys]

MEXICO HAS TO SPEND MONEY ON THEIR PEOPLE INSTEAD OF PROTECTING THE WEALTHY WITH FEW TAXES AND GETTING THE TAXES OFF THE POOR.

IF THEY DON'T PEOPLE WILL DIE TRYING TO GET OUT OF THERE.

[Romeover]

I wish people would stop harping on Palin's lack of experience. Or Obama's lack of experience.
It's not about experience.
It's not even about leadership.
It's about the direction they will take the country.

[stopthemongoose]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Obama has roughly only 130 days more of being a junior senator, and most of his time has been spent on the campaign trail. Now compare that with executive experience at running a state. So how is it that Obama is more experienced as President than Palin would be for VP?

[Gidster]

He has been involved with government longer.
Served in the Illinois Senate for four years, then a US senator since 2004. The campaign started in late 2007 so I think there has been more than 4 months on the job. That is a McCain Campaign assertion.

[CellarDoor]

Don't argue quantity...argue quality. Everything else is meaningless.

I'd say that neither of them are 'overly' qualified, but only one wants to mindlessly continue the last 8 years of destruction, continue the "holy war" against Islam, and wants to force victims of rape or incest (or both) to carry the baby to term. You cannot determine this fact from each of their self-described "experience"...you can only elicit this from determining the quality of the work they have done during their experience (no matter how long or short), their political philosophies, and then what direction they believe is best for the country.

Experience has become a child's argument that stands in the way of real discourse over whether or not these people have any right to be PotUS. Many good AND bad presidents were similarly inexperienced than the current cast of characters. It is a false argument.

Last time I checked, the actual qualifications for President of the United States are:

1) You must be a natural born citizen

2) You must be at least 35 years of age.

3) You must obtain 100,000 signatures in support of your running for PotUS.

That's it! No required "government experience" whatsoever!

This idea of 'allowing me to define experience and then hold you accountable to my definition' is the height of subjective reasoning (read: arrogance) and deserves no place in any remotely intelligent debate.

[valleygent]

Hey mongoliangoose simply put...her experience is soley in Alaska...a state with a lower population than most cities. Sorry but Senator Obama has been dealing with NATIONAL issues for far longer than this morality cop. And a if we use your metric, the top of your ticket has ZERO experience in the executive. These Bush/McCain Republicans are so lame they fight their own arguments. Executive experience onlly counts if it is in the Presidency.

[jrbartlettjr]

I was incensed by the cynicism in Sarah Palin"s speech on several accounts, most particularly by her cleverly written comment about the difference between being a small town mayor and being a community organizer in Chicago. I have been both. I worked in a community organization on the west side of Chicago in 1976-78 and I was chairman of my village planning and zoning commission in 1998-2000 in the Houston area. Palin has no idea what she is talking about. No clue. The entire Alaskan population of 700,000 people would fit in the west side area of Chicago where I lived and worked for two years. Sure, running a small town is hard work, and honorable work, but nothing compared to the complex and disturbing problems an urban community organizer faces on a daily basis. The most glaring example of Sarah Palin"s naivete is her attitude toward sex education: preach abstinence, let girls get pregnant, and then deal with the consequences, which includes serving up vast numbers of pregnant teens and fatherless infants to social service agencies ill-equipped to deal with the scale of the problem. And of course, the bill for this is paid by the very tax dollars she is vowing her ticket would veto if elected.

[valleygent]

You nailed jrbart...Shame on McCain for picking the neophyte moral authority amateur from a state with 10 people, and some Grizzly Bears. Chicago alone has more people to govern than her entire state. Obama represents over 12 million in the state of Illinois, and deals with NATIONAL issues every single day. Alaska...who cares? Now come on Democrats attack this Alaskan morality cop of a governor.

[valleygent]

you got it right jrbart...Shame on McCain for picking the neophyte moral authority amateur from a state with 10 people, and some Grizzly Bears. Chicago alone has more people to govern than her entire state. Obama represents over 12 million in the state of Illinois, and deals with NATIONAL issues every single day. Alaska...who cares? Now Democrats... attack this morality cop of governor hard!!

[moodpost]

Attack McCain for choosing her. I guess you might have to attack her to show how stupid it is, but the focus should be on McCain's judgment IMO.

[Singha]

Hopefully her speech tonight will only appeal the 30% dead-enders.

Me thinks she has more ghosts in the closet that hasn't vetted yet.

BTW I'm a Frookin fan, I read him everyday in WaPo.

The best thing in WaPO

[Obama-sama]

Froomkin is the ONLY good thing in WaPo. The rest of that rag goes to line the bird cage.

[groundhog6]

hello question i know what blue stars and gold stars are for she was wearing one tonight and said her son was going so if not there why was she wearing it

[Gidster]

To draw attention to the fact that her son is a soldier.
If he is killed in Iraq, would that garner her full attention to that issue?
Godspeed soldier!

[Szewczyk]

Dan Froomkin has absolutely nailed it, although I wouldn't quote Richard Cohen for much of anything.

[SocialistMe]

You"ve asked the American people whether Governor Palin is qualified to run the country? The American people have already answered your question with their huge endorsement of Senator Obama with his feather-light experience on which they are willing to gamble on"for change. Clearly Obama"s mouth (and his great PR soundbite-copywriting geniuses) are writing checks his experience can"t cash.

By asking this question"you pander to the American public. Campaigns and the subsequent elections are never about getting good government. If they were"we probably would be electing people with solid private industry track records and not career politicians. Stop trying to fuel the fantasy. It"s full-out war in the battle to WIN, period and it seems like everyone in America knows it"except YOU. Strategically, this is a brilliant move by McCain"and you know it, a move that is designed to pull the strong support shown for Sen Clinton"just as the choice of gray-haired, moderate, foreign policy Biden was a move to pull support away from the Republicans.

Keep your eye on character and experience. I love to hear Obama speak"he is great and refreshing. But Obama has yet to suffieciently answer the nagging question of character"of why he would sit for 20 years in a church listening to the rhetoric of hate from Pastor Wright. He somehow has disassociated himself with that idealogy and as far as I can see"done so in order to"win the election"not because his sentiments aren"t there. Explore that in your next blog topic.

[Boadicea]

Thank you. You nailed it.

[guajiro]

It's rather disconcerting to see Clear Channel direct all of it's hundreds of radio stations nationwide air the "question of the day" as to whether Palin should be allowed to be VP because she is a woman. No political questions allowed to be aired, NONE. It amounts to nothing less than a day-long name recognition exercise for the public who vote on.......name recognition. No questions about her decisions on whether to invade Colombia, Iran, attack Russia, allow China to furnish Iran nuclear weapons, etc. Nope, just beauty queen questions as to whether anyone ought to even question her candidacy. Talk about the media not being on the public's side.

[dadw5boys]

Palin contradicts herself in her own speech.

So qualification don't matter unless it is a Democrates who is running for office.

Ask John Mc Cain how many bills or laws he actually wrote !!!!!!!

The Think Tanks and Lobbyist wrote all the laws and Bills he has ever supported!!!!!!!

Know how to write a law, know how to write a bill and what part must not be chaged to preserve the integerity of the legislation is important.

So when Obama and Biden sit down to change how Washington works they can put it in plan easy to read english so everyone can understand.

They will not need lobbyist and think tanks to write their legislation for which causes more problems and loopholes. SO wake up America 4 more years of Bush or Change.