Senators lead one of the most diverse organizations in our country, whose responsibilities far exceed anything a governor would be responsible for. That organization is their own staff.

More often then not a Senators office is larger then the staff of a Governor's office. For example, Obama has at least 60 regular members while a Governor of a small state can have as few as 10 staff members.

Governor's don't deal with the breadth of national issues that a Senator must address and deal with. The knowledge of a Senator isn't limited to that of his state, their knowledge must extend beyond local and regional concerns to national and international issues. A governor may need to know how to develop a state budget but Senators must understand and help develop international treaties, national budgets, and understand the U.S. Code and Constitution.

It's no easy undertaking and that is the reason our Founding Fathers decided that the term of office of a Senator must be 6 years and be up for re-election to give them time to understand national issues and address national concerns before re-election.

Governor's are elected every four years from our neighbors because its an easy job.

Are capable of governing in any capacity. Unfortunately, only the most wealthy and/or power hungry people run for office. What the two dominant parties do to the others candidates keeps alot of people out of the system. Unforunately, Matheson did not dig up dirt of Mr. Huntsman who has alot of hiddenissues from his days in high school and college. Had Matheson exposed these character issues he may have won.

lets vote for Jesse Ventura, remember the wrestler that governed Minnesota - sure he could be a good president - I do believe his brain functions better than McCains

A Senator is only one of 100. When a Senator makes an unpopular decision, he/she can blame politics and say that sometimes you have to trade votes.

A Governor stands alone. No one else shares the blame for an unpopular decision.

Having both feet in the fire all the time is a lot more difficult than simply being a member of the world's most exclusive club where you can run and hide and blame others.

This argument seems to be the preferred one now that Ms. Palin has been chosen as the Repbulican nominee for VP. I find the logic to be specious at best.

What I can't figure out is when a United States Senator became a job that required no experience and only a nominal education? You would think by comments from our Republican friends that US Senators are chumps who got the job from a guy that picked them up at the Home Depot parking lot.

If having "executive" experience is all that mattered, then I would suppose any manager at a McDonalds would also be better qualified than a US Senator or US Representative to lead our nation.

It's no wonder, with that kind of logic, that my Republican friends are slowly fading away...

Washington was never a governor.
Lincoln was never a governor.
JFK was never a governor.
Oh wait, Palin's been a governor for 19 months, so she's ready!

If serving as the Governor of a state with a population of 680,000 is deemed sufficient to qualify a person to be president, then can we at least also acknowledge that being a U.S. Senator to 13,000,000 people is also sufficient?

It's time to drop this nonsensical back-and-forth about qualifications and focus on the candidate's positions and plans for America.

19 months and she's already under investigation. Way to go!

One year in a governor's mansion is equal to a whole term in the Senate.

Senators talk. Governors do.

Thomas, thanks for the equation.

By this logic, Biden has 36 years in the Senate so he is 6 terms in Senate / 2 years as Governor (I'll give her the benefit of rounding up) = 3.

So Biden, the Democrat VP nominee is 3 times more qualified than Palin.

Oh, and "Mike Richards": does running a Senate staff of 64 and a Campaign staff of 2500 not count as running anything?

If Obama doesn't get the credit for being the Executive there, who does? And how does McCain get any credit for experience if Obama gets none for his Senate time?

a governor would make a better president than a senator.
Heck, look at George W. Bush, who was governor of Texas!!!

GWB: In my experience (having worked in the Senate), a rookie Senator doesn't "run a Senate staff." The Senate staff runs him.

I'll grant you that Biden is far more experienced than Palin. But of course neither Biden nor Palin are running at the top of the ticket. Surely you'd agree that the person for whom experience is most crucial is the guy who actually executes the office of the President, as opposed to the person whose main job is to attend foreign state funerals.

For Obama to attack Palin's alleged lack of experience only highlights the fact that the Democratic ticket has a person with *at least* an equivalent lack of experience as its headliner.

Government needs to be run as efficiently as any business, and lawyers are almost as bad as doctors when it comes to business. Send all of the lawyers home and elect business people.

GWB,

Does Obama actually claim that he is "running" a Senate staff of 64, or does he have an office manager that does that for him? Does he "run" a Campaign staff of 2,500 or does he have several campaign managers who do that for him?

Mr. Obama is not an executive. That is not part of his job title. Just like a board member sitting on a board of directors is simply a board member, not an executive, Obama a Senator, a member of Congress . He is allowed a staff to help him meet his responsibilities as he represents his State. He does not execute the will of the people of Illinois, because he is not the Chief Executive Officer of Illinois.

Illinois, just like every other State in the Union is allowed to have two Senators to represent the rights of that State. He is the JUNIOR Senator from Illinois.

So, to repeat, Obama is not an executive, except in the loosest use of that term. He is not the Chief Executive Officer of Illinois. In fact of the 21 people in Congress from Illinois, only Representatives Hare, Foster, and Roskam have LESS experience than Obama.

ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Mike, so Sarah Palin, who had a City Administrator and who has a Chief of Staff as Governor is running the city and the state gets credit, but Obama who has a chief of staff in the Senate and who runs a campaign of 2500+ doesn't get any credit. This is some fantasy of logic that you use here.

Does Obama make a decision on how to cast his vote?

Oh, and Bennett is the JUNIOR Senator from Utah. Do you think he is unqualified because he is the JUNIOR Senator? Then what does the title Junior or Senior Senator have to do with it?

It is clear that you don't like Obama and do not intend to vote for him, but honestly, do you think Sarah Palin is the most qualified VP choice McCain could pick?

As Bill Clinotn said last week, (paraphrasing) the the first Presidential decision a nominee makes is the choice of a running mate.

If he wanted a woman as VP, McCain could have picked any number of women like Kay Bailey Hutchison, Texas Senator and former Texas State Treasurer (executive experience for you), he could of picked Carly Fiorina the former CEO of HP.

Mike Richards,

"A Senator is only one of 100. When a Senator makes an unpopular decision, he/she can blame politics and say that sometimes you have to trade votes."

Yet, a Senator ONLY answers to his state. He may be able to claim that he needed to trade votes but so can a Governor and they do make that claim.

"A Governor stands alone. No one else shares the blame for an unpopular decision."

A Senator also stands alone when it comes time for re-election and no one else shares the blame for an unpopular vote they have made. If it's an unpopular decision they can't pass off the blame.

"Having both feet in the fire all the time is a lot more difficult than simply being a member of the world's most exclusive club where you can run and hide and blame others."

These people put in long hours, deal with major issues while Governor's get to sit in their nice offices taking all the credit while legislators do all the work for them. They take credit for the work of legislators while trying to pass blame to them for mistakes. They are nothing but glory hounds.

Clinton and Bush were governors. Need, I say more? Before Bush conservatives would tell you Clinton being a government of a small state was no experience to be president.

Last election, McCain was the Manchurian Candidate. I recall, Limbaugh's long diatribes against McCain. Rove, a one time resident of SLC, made his name selling conservative's that McCain was a plague.

Thomas,

"One year in a governor's mansion is equal to a whole term in the Senate."

So this means that Biden's Senate experience equals 6 years as a Governor and Obama has almost 2 years of experience as a Governor from his 11 years as a Senator. Thanks for educating us. It's good to know that the Obama/Biden ticket has the equivalent of 8 years of experience as a Governor. So combined we will have the experience of a 2 term governor if Obama/Biden are elected.

"Senators talk. Governors do."

Senators actually do the work while Governors take all the glory from their State Legislatures who do the real work of governing and legislating.

Governors are nothing more then glory hounds.

1 year as a Senator is equal to a full term as a Governor. When the McCain campaign was asked to name ONE thing that Sarah Palin did as Commander in Chief of the Alaska National Guard they stated that tried to avoid answering but when pressed came up with her deciding on how to deploy and equip Guardsmen in Iraq. When confronted and told that the Pentagon makes these decisions they pull John McCain's CNN interview.

Karl Rove, speaking of Governor Kaine, said:

"With all due respect again to Governor Kaine, he's been a governor for three years, he's been able but undistinguished,"

"I don't think people could really name a big, important thing that he's done. He was mayor of the 105th largest city in America."

"So if he were to pick Governor Kaine, it would be an intensely political choice where he said, `You know what? I'm really not, first and foremost, concerned with -- is this person capable of being president of the United States?"

Each of these things could be said about Sarah Palin but she's been governor of Alaska for less than two years while Kaine has been governor of Virginia for more then three years. Palin was formerly mayor of a town that only has a population of about 9000 while Kaine was mayor of the 105th largest city in the U.S.

So, now that Rove has said of McCain that it was an "intensely political choice where he said, `You know what? I'm really not, first and foremost, concerned with -- is this person capable of being president of the United States?"

Thanks for letting us know Karl Rove!

You Democrats are funny. Suddenly Senators do all of the work, but George Bush is to blame for all of the bad decisions coming out of Government?

Many of these Senators have been hiding behind a multitude of bad decisions that they made, and blaming them on all on Bush. From Deficit Spending to the war in Iraq, the Executive has been taking all the blame.

NOW do you see why Republicans value Executive experience over that of a Senator?

And managing a McDonald's is similar to managing a campaign staff. By definition, it is managing, not acting as an Executive. You can hold the position of Executive and understand the difference or you can flip burgers and think you know the difference.

@ 3:02,

What a contradiction. You quoted Karl Rove and then judged Sarah Palin by Rove's opinion of Governor Kaine. Huh?

Even your "signature" is misleading, i.e. "Karl Rove on Sarah Palin".

If you actually have a Karl Rove quote on Sarah Palin as Governor of Alaska, I'd like to read it.

We've have good Governors and bad Governors in Utah. Some had what it would take to lead this nation, others struggled with the burdens of Utah. Clumping all governors into one-size-fits-all is hardly realistic..

Mike Richards,

"What a contradiction."

It's not a contradiction and you don't decide what's a contradiction. Karl Rove condemned Gov. Kaine for having more experience then Palin but is now silent when it comes to Palin.

"If you actually have a Karl Rove quote on Sarah Palin as Governor of Alaska, I'd like to read it."

Of course you would since Karl is friends with the lady from Wasilla. I am sure you would love to read a Karl Rove quote on Mike Richards as well if McCain chose you to be his running mate.

"We've have good Governors and bad Governors in Utah. Some had what it would take to lead this nation, others struggled with the burdens of Utah. Clumping all governors into one-size-fits-all is hardly realistic."

Forbes ranked Virginia best for business for three years in a row. Where was Alaska? Governing Magazine ranked Virginia as a best governed state. Where was Alaska? By the way Utah was ranked alongside of both Virginia and Washington.

The point I was making is that we can't lump all Governors into a one-size-fits-all category since some are better then others and Sarah Palin has little to no experience as Governor.

America is embracing Sarah Palin. Finally there is at least one candidate worth cheering for. Finally, after all these months of hand-wringing there is a candidate that stands for principles that Americans appreciate. Finally there is someone who not trying to impress the public, but is just being herself.

That's why the Democrats are trying to slander anyone who supports Sarah Palin. They can see, that compared to Mrs. Palin, Mr. Obama is an empty suit - with a good speech writer. America has already seen the difference and the Democrats are running scared. They thought they had this election in the bag, and now they see the campaign is just beginning.

On these threads the Democrats have resorted to abusive, coarse language laced with threats against those of us who support Sarah Palin. Confident people don't resort to abusive and coarse language. They have no desire to use threats. Confident people know that they have a solid foundation that will carry them forward. Sarah Palin is showing America that there is, indeed, a solid foundation underlying everything that she is and everything that she does - regardless of the mud being slung by the opposition.