“Now, I know the comparison between Palin and Caroline Kennedy is not perfect. Each has strengths where the other has weaknesses, and the jobs of senator and vice president aren’t identical (the former actually has more responsibility, for starters). But the comparison is nonetheless revealing. Palin’s selection triggered troughs of bile, vomited up from nearly every respectable liberal quarter. A Florida congressman, and Obama surrogate, insinuated that Palin was a “Nazi sympathizer” and anti-Semite (she’s not, but Caroline Kennedy’s grandfather was). Her by-the-bootstraps story was ridiculed by nearly every ex-debutante newsreader and avowed “feminist” in America. Meanwhile, Caroline, with a resume perfectly suited to being a Kennedy and little else, is a Cinderella who deserves a Senate seat because, well, she just does.” –Jonah Goldberg, dissecting the different treatment Palin gets vs Caroline Kennedy
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Caroline Kennedy is not qualified to be Senator, and Sarah Palin was not qualified to be Vice President.
I don’t see what’s so hard about this.
Oh… And it’s rich that Jonah Goldberg would object to Kennedy - unless he came out against Palin’s nomination and we missed it. Did I miss that? If he wasn’t opposed to Palin, I don’t see how he can object to Kennedy.
I have had positions where I was responsible for hiring and firing people. My chief aim was to hire the person that either had a proven track record of verifiable accomplishments, or a track history of personal growth that showed the best potential for learning/performance.
I learned over time that the usual resources of resumes, references, and letters of references were unreliable when hunting for the “best candidate.” Resumes were good only for job history, multiple degrees were no indicator of “smarts”, personal references needed to be screened for legitimate endorsement or lukewarm enthusiasm.
It all came down to the interview and my gut feeling of what I was seeing and hearing. I especially wanted to know 2 or 3 significant accomplishments that made a difference at their previous job. Or, a history of taking on new challenges and performing well.
Looking back, I am satisfied with the rookies and veterans that I hired and kept. Who would I have hired out of this last election for a position on my staff? Palin.
I think (although I don’t know personally) that she is one of those individuals that has had to work hard every step of the way and out of personal pride would drive herself to be a top performer. I’ll take that person any day of the week over prima donnas.
Sure, gsarcs. Palin’s qualified to work for you. I don’t hire and fire, but I’d recommend her to my manager. She’s reasonably competent. Reasonably smart. She’s as good as most of the candidates you’d come across, or probably better than average.
But what about for the position of CEO? Absolutely not. Can she run a company of thousands of people? No way. Not competently. At least not at this stage in her life. She may have the potential to do that at some point, but right now she just doesn’t demonstrate the knowledge base.
Any self respecting Republican ought to think that if she’s not competent to run a company, she sure as hell has no business being nominated as VP. Why do Republicans continue to push her like she’s so great and should be the Republican standard bearer? Why not rather push for people with demonstrated knowledge and experience for leadership?
Note that arch Palin basher Andrew Sullivan is likewise ripping Caroline Kennedy. To him she’s a joke. Just like Palin.
And once again I find myself in full agreement with LawrenceB.
I agree that Palin isn’t ready for a CEO position,yet. I couldn’t see any evidence of that either from the 3 other guys. I don’t know why in the world we ended up with those 4. They were the “best candidates”, really?
Maybe it is my cynicism and skepticism after watching people like Helen Chenoweth, Steve Symms, George Hansen get elected right along with Cecil Andrus, Jim McClure, Frank Church types in my home state. The credo in my life has always been “Hope for the best - plan for the worst.” Politicians, in particular, never fail to meet my low expectations.
Sometimes I think that the desire to have a royal class must be hardwired into the human brain. I have no idea why anyone would want Kennedy as senator. If a book were made with the names of people more exciting and more qualified, we could fill a set of encyclopedia volumes (and do this, in New York alone). Palin, on the other hand, in addition to being unqualified, struck me as deceptive and full of hairbrained ideas. Maybe we need to create a royal class so that we can have some beautiful people run around and appear in tabloids without letting them near the levers of power.