I suppose there is not much left to say about Sarah Palin. Or maybe there is a world to say.
But the first thought that comes to mind is how impoverished the Republican Party is. To have dug so hard and to have come up with such circumstantial assets as being a woman and an evangelical Christian is really not much. There are millions of them, even pretty ones, which speaks to another political asset.
I can't quite say of Governor Palin that she is jejeune. But there is little public evidence yet available that forbids me.
So let me focus on her political experience. Apparently, Senator McCain once toyed with asking Mayor Bloomberg to be his running-mate. Mike had the experience of building one of the most successful private businesses in the world, and nothing he did suggests that he was a pirate. More important, he has run New York for nearly eight years as mayor and he has done it in a way that puts the Democratic Party to shame.
Palin has also been the mayor of Wasilla, a tiny city of maybe 7,000 inhabitants. This is not really executive experience of any kind. It's no accident that no mayor of any city (I think) and certainly no mayor of what is really a small town has ever been nominated for such high office. And, frankly, the same insight applies to Palin's experience as governor of Alaska. Yes, she has been chief executive of one of the fifty states of the union, and it is not the lowest state in population. Behind Alaska stand North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming, plus the District of Columbia.
Still, Alaska is a relatively special position. It is a jurisdiction that has no budgetary problems whatsoever. It has an enormous surplus of nearly $37 billion now managed by the Alaska Permanent Fund, and it is growing. In any case, this year every man, woman and child in Alaska will receive a dividend of nearly $3,900. This is not experience that can be transferred to Washington. It has no relevance to zillions of dollars in accumulated budget deficit.
Experience, shmexperience. Nothing.