This is borderline surreal, but today SoetorObama claims he has more experience than Sarah Palin because he’s run for president, and he counts his presidential campaign of the last two years as executive leadership experience (it’s not).

VIA CNN:

Obama defends natural disaster experience
Posted: 07:10 PM ET
From
Anderson Cooper interviewed Barack Obama Monday.
Anderson Cooper interviewed Barack Obama Monday.

(CNN) — Barack Obama defended his experience in dealing with natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, and took a swipe at newly minted GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

In an interview on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 Monday night, Obama was asked about whether his experience in the U.S. Senate dealing with weather-related situations compares to Palin’s executive experience running the state of Alaska and as the small town mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

“My understanding is that Gov. Palin’s town, Wassilla, has I think 50 employees. We’ve got 2500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe 12 million dollars a year – we have a budget of about three times that just for the month,” Obama responded.

Our ability to manage large systems and to execute I think has been made clear over the past couple of years and certainly in terms of the legislation I’ve passed in the past couple of years, post-Katrina.”

You can watch the full interview on Anderson Cooper 360 tonight at 10 p.m. ET.

For starters, what legislation has SoetorObama passed in his time in the United States Senate?

The Library of Congress lists all bills SoetorObama has sponsored in his one term in the United States Senate. The complete list can be found here.  Collected, this legislation does not equal the experience of actually running a state, or even running a city, for any length of time. Some highlights:

1. Bill celebrating the Juneteenth independence holiday

2. Bill prohibiting requirement of photo identification at polling places

3. Resolution congratulating the Chicago White Sox on winning the World Series

4. Resolution designating June 13th, 2006 as “National Summer Learning Day”

5. Bill to prohibit deceptive practices in federal elections

6. Bill to provide transparency and integrity in the federal earmark process

7. Bill to create a Rosa Parks postage stamp

8. Bil to extend temporarily the the suspension of duty on certain epoxy moulding compounds

9. Bill to rename post office in St. Louis, Illinois the “Katherine Dunham Post Office Building”

10. Bill to prevent, and if necessary respond to, an international outbreak of the avian flu

You can read the entire list here. There are 152 bills/resolutions that he’s sponsored so far in his term as Senator.

You can also look up other Senators here, to see what legislation they have sponsored as well. Every Senator will have a list of legislation ranging from ridiculous things like the Chicago White Sox congratulations, to bills extending the duty on certain chemicals, to bills promoting holidays or education grants, etc. You can pick the most terrible member of the United States Senate (Claire McCaskill), and find bills she’s sponsored that make her sound halfway competent. With McCaskill, you really have to try, but it can be done. You can also cherry-pick all the ridiculous bills and make a list of the top ten stupid things each Senator has supported. Most of the bills any of them pass seem to be procedural in nature, and a relatively small number of the bills they sponsor ever get passed.

This does not, however, compare to actually running a government as its chief executive, especially not when SoetorObama reaches so far as to say his experience running for president should be considered alongside someone who is an actual governor of a state, let alone the largest state in the union.

Palin commands actual troops in the Alaskan National Guard.

She formulates and enacts the state’s budget.

She deals with Canadian and Russian officials on a daily basis in terms of fishing rights, immigration, border control, and other international issues (people seem to forget Russian and Alaska share a border in the Bering Sea, not to mention the miles of border shared with Canada). State governors bordering other countries have daily international experience.

She negotiates with major oil and gas companies, trade unions, and other organizations vested heavily in the economy of Alaska.

Even as the mayor of Wasilla, she was responsible for budgets, governance, and the people in her charge. She was Mayor for two terms of the fastest growing city in Alaska, having to deal with serious issues facing the fishing community, in particular, on which her local community depended on heavily for their economic existence.

That’s a lot more serious and important, in our book, than running for president for the last two years, and counting your campaign experience as qualifying experience for the presidency. If what SoetorObama says is true, than Ralph Nader is three times as experienced as SoetorObama, since he’s run for president that many times. SoetorObama’s argument also means he’s just as qualified as someone like Ted Kennedy to be president, since Kennedy also ran for president that one time.

There have been all sorts of characters that have run for president in our nation’s history, but running for president, itself, has, to our knowledge, never before been claimed as qualifying experience justifying their run for president.

Consider the implications of that logic above:

1. I should be a doctor, because for the last two years, I have been applying for a medical license and have actively lobbied for one.

2. I should be an astronaut, because for the last two years, I have been telling people across the country that I want to be an astronaut.

3. I should be a Olympic gold medalist, because for the last two years, I have been on the news alot telling everyone how good I would be at being an Olympic gold medalist. I even made a “medal” of my own that looks like a real gold medal, kind of, and I wear it sometimes to pretend I am an Olympic gold medalist.  

 

UPDATE: McCain campaign issues this rebuttal to SoetorObama:

John McCain’s spokesman called (SoetorObama’s remarks) “laughable.”

“For Barack Obama to argue that he’s experienced enough to be president because he’s running for president is desperate circular logic and its laughable. It is a testament to Barack Obama’s inexperience and failing qualifications that he would stoop to passing off his candidacy as comparable to Governor Sarah Palin’s executive experience managing a budget of over $10 billion and more than 24,000 employees,” said spokesman Tucker Bounds.

Republican National Committee Victory 2008 Chairwoman Carly Fiorina also blasted the Democratic campaign.

“I am appalled by the Obama campaign’s attempts to belittle Governor Sarah Palin’s experience.  The facts are that Sarah Palin has made more executive decisions as a mayor and governor than Barack Obama has made in his life,” Fiorina said, adding that the Obama camp’s attacks raise the question of sexism.

“Because of Hillary Clinton’s historic run for the presidency and the treatment she received, American women are more highly tuned than ever to recognize and decry sexism in all its forms.  They will not tolerate sexist treatment of Governor Palin,” she said.