Ed Morrissey has gone through the bother of producing a thorough transcript of Barack Obama’s painful soliloquy on why he’s ready to handle any disaster as president. I think you’ll find the Hyde Park Hamlet’s logic as impressive as his eloquence:
Anderson Cooper: Some Republican critics say, you don’t have the experience to handle a situation like this [Hurricane Gustav]. They’ve in fact said that Governor Palin has more executive experience as mayor of a small town and as governor of a big state like Alaska. What’s your response? Obama: Well, you know, my understanding is that, uh, Governor Palin’s town of Wasilly [sic] has, uh, 50 employees, uh, uh, we’ve got 2500, uh, in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. Uh, uh, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month. Uh, so I think that, uh, our ability to manage large systems, uh, and to, uh, execute, uh, I think has been made clear over the last couple of years. Uh, and certainly, in terms of, uh, the legislation that I’ve passed just dealing with this issue post-Katrina, uh, of how we handle emergency management. The fact that, uh, many of my recommendations were adopted and are being put in place, uh, as we speak indicates to extent to which we can provide the kinds of support and good service that the American people expect.
Of course, as Ed points out, Palin’s executive experience includes not just her time in “Wasilly” but also her time running Alaska. Although Alaska lacks opulent private airplanes and custom made presidential logos, it is nevertheless a significantly larger enterprise than even the Obama campaign. (For more on Obama’s less than brilliant career, see my story today on the main page.)
