I Got Almost as Many Votes as Palin When I Was in College

[digg-reddit-me]

Not to be snide, but I realized when reading about Sarah Palin’s rapid rise to political stardom that until she became governor less than two years ago, her only elected position was mayor of a town about the size of a medium-sized college.

(I’m going to put aside – for the moment –  the fact that she won her election by politicizing the non-partisan job of mayor – running on a plank of Christianism, opposition to abortion, and gun rights – for a job that had nothing to do with any of these. And, in fact, her election marks the first time the state Republican party ran advertisements in the non-partisan town elections.)

McCain claims that Palin:

has been in elected office longer than Sen. Obama.

True enough. Because 616 Alaskans put their faith in her after the state Republican party spent valuable resources and she campaigned on issues she would have no say about.

The funny thing I realized was that I got nearly as many votes when I ran for campus-wide office in college and lost. The winners – Kevin Gallagher & Nicole Mortorano – got two less votes than Palin did. And my college only had 2,700 people in it. ((Yea, Palin got more votes later when she won the governorship – but McCain keeps saying that she’s been in elected office longer than Obama – because she won her first election in 1996.)) Palin won another term as mayor, and then lost a race, leaving her without an elected office for a few years.

Based on McCain’s understanding then, the moment someone is elected in an election as substantial as Palin’s, they start gaining “experience” in elected office. So now we can say that Palin – elected by a few hundred votes in 1996 has more experience than Obama – because she won elective office before Obama did.

My question is then, how many high school and college student leaders have begun to accumulate valuable “Experience”? And of course, McCain has been arguing that it is “Experience”, not judgment or knowledge or stuff like that, that makes one Ready to be a leader on Day One.

So – who out there has begun to accumulate this valuable experience that will enable you to be chosen as vice president? All you need is 616 votes, and the clock starts. Make your case here.

Email me at [email protected] or post the information in a comment and I’ll keep a running list.

Please include the name of each student leader, what they were running for, whether they won or lost, and any other information that seems appropriate (pictures, background, size of student body, and wherever possible, a link demonstrating the results.)

The Ready-On-Day-One Club

Name	Votes	Position	Comment
Sarah Palin	616 (W)	Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska	We can’t all be as cosmopolitan as Obama, but this experience makes Palin Ready-On-Day-One.
Kevin Gallagher & Nicole Mortorano	614 (W)	Co-chairs of Holy Cross SGA	They almost reach the Palin threshhold.

[Image by svanes licensed under Creative Commons.]