Palin Experience Pales Next to 19 Recent VPs
Sarah Palin: Six Colleges But Only One Degree Doesn’t Cut It
Sep 13, 2008 Rosemary E. Bachelor
The lack of judgment and discernment started early. Palin attended six colleges in six years, but only got one degree. There is no stick-to-it-iveness here. There is no discernment of the value of an education. It’s just downright irresponsible to shift colleges every year and it shows not only a lack of motivation, but also no respect for education.
How fickle? She and some high school classmates decided on a university in Hilo, Hawaii because they were dreaming of wonderful beach weather fit for…well, you know what teenagers value the beach scenario for.
Unfortunately, they didn’t check enough out in advance to know Hilo weather is mostly rain, rain, rain. They switched to a university in Honolulu. That’s only the start of Palin’s college misadventures
Colleges with No Criteria.
None of the colleges Palin attended reportedly have entrance requirements. That makes them even less than bridges-from-nowhere that don't lead to Harvard and Yale, alma maters for some of America’s most renowned leaders, and of presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama.
Palin could be a leader even more fickle than the on-again, off-again President Bush who finally decided Saddam Hussein didn’t contribute to 9/11 (after Bush was proved wrong), didn’t have nuclear weapons (after he made a fool out of Colin Powell for his UN testimony) and who flunked his own “no child left behind” quest to improve the American educational system.
Palin Compared to Presidents
The nitty gritty? When you look at the background of the last 17 U. S. presidents, only two could be said to have less educational background than Palin and all but four had more political job and life experience than she does.
The norm? All but three of these presidents were identified early on as being popular among their peers and having exceptional abilities. For most, their leadership began with high school or college leadership activities.
According to a Bloomberg News Service story, Palin’s University of Idaho academic advisor doesn’t remember her and the journalism professor who signed her application for graduation in 1987 referred to her as “just one of dozens of students” he helped process through the program that year.
Palin spent two semesters at North Idaho College, a community college in Coeur d'Alene, near Sandpoint, where Palin was born. Same message there: no professors remembered Palin.
Palin Compared to Vice Presidents
Stacking her experience record against the last 22 vice presidents is even more disconcerting. A hefty 19 of them had previous experience in Washington political circles, most of them as longtime legislators.
Her profile unfortunately most resembles that of Spiro Agnew, who had one of the fastest rises in political history. He went from county executive to vice president in six years, sandwiching the Maryland governorship in between. Sound familiar? Agnew is, to date, the only vice president in U. S. history to resign because of criminal charges.
SOURCES: Bloomburg News Service; Vice Presidents of the United States by Mark O. Hatfield, U. S. Government Printing Office (1997: Washington); Wikipedia biographies; Congressional Biographical Directory; S9.com Biographical Dictionary; Wiki Answers.com; "Republican vice presidential nominee Palin changes colleges 6 times in 6 years," Los Angeles Times, by Nichols H. Geranios (for AP), Sept. 4, 2008.
Companion articles focus upon columnist and editorial writer positions that Palin isn't ready for national office, discuss a negative letter which was printed in Palin's hometown newspaper and give criteria for selecting effective leaders.
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