"Executive Experience"

No one who's paying attention to the presidential election has not seen or heard references to the "executive experience" each candidate in this race does or does not have. The thinking goes something like this: Sarah Palin's been a mayor and a governor, which gives her executive experience, to which Senators Obama and Biden (and Senator McCan't) cannot lay claim.

To borrow from that extraordinary philosopher Cher Horowitz: As IF!

Let's be clear. Having gubernatorial experience, mayoral experience, or any other type of "executive" experience does not qualify a person more for any elected office. What makes a person qualified for the job is their record of actual (sometimes even perceived) stewardship. As we all know, mayors, governors, etc. are not hired guns who are answerable to stockholders. They are elected by voters. Their first responsibility is to their constituents. In this context, every single person in this general election has this type of experience.

I'm not arguing that Sarah Palin has less such experience, but she was mayor of a closet of a town and governor of a state with an economy that more closely resembles Saudi Arabia than the U.S. Barack Obama has nearly four years on the national stage representing the citizens of a large, industrialized state with multiple layers of economy (manufacturing, service, and agrarian). Biden has 36 years on that same stage and has chaired committees in the Senate, representing the views not only of his small state but the interests of the Constitution itself. McCan't is likewise experienced.

So let's not quibble about executive experience. It's a non-issue.