Obama=Palin?

Sullivan makes an excellent point here: comparing Obama to Palin is, at this point, ridiculous. On paper it might work, depending on how you equate her "executive" experience with Obama's legislative experience. But you'd have to ignore two things: First, the fact that since being elected to the Senate (and even before then), Obama has engaged the major issues the country is facing on the national stage. Where are Palin's major policy addresses on...well, anything? From what I've seen so far, she hasn't engaged any foreign policy issues in any meaningful way.

The second thing you'd need to ignore is the last 18 months, that is, Obama's campaign for president. The way he's conducted himself during the primary and the way his team dismantled the Clintons. You want executive experience? Running what may be the smoothest campaign in modern politics and defeating an entrenched opponent with almost every initial advantage takes serious leadership ability. I'm not saying that Palin couldn't have some serious chops (although I'd be surprised if she had anything close to Obama's level of ability), but at this point she's an unknown. Even Obama had four years in DC and some of the best people in the business on his team to get him to this point. And by most accounts it still took him several debates to get to the point where he could compete with Hilary. Palin has the Everest of learning curves ahead of her right now.