Progress Illinois

In an interview on WGN's Spike O'Dell Show yesterday, Gov. Rod Blagojevich expressed his support for Barack Obama, but also chided Democrats for questioning Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin's experience. He said: "It's an executive position. And it's a position that is like what you’re going to do when you're president," adding: "[G]overnors make decisions, and I think it's a tactical mistake for the Democrats to question Gov. Palin's experience when she's been a governor of a state." Listen here (courtesy of the Tribune):

Internal mp3

Blagojevich suggests that by raising questions about Palin's experience, Democrats are somehow denigrating gubernatorial experience in general as a prerequisite for the presidency. But that misses a crucial distinction at the heart of the Democratic criticism -- the distinction between a two-year governor deciding to run for president well in advance of the election and a two-year governor being tapped as a running mate nine weeks before voters go to the polls.

Imagine an alternative scenario in which a female governor from Alaska, after nearly two years in office, decided to run for president. Most likely, she would make this decision at least 18 months -- if not more -- before the actual election was to be held. Just like Obama in early 2007, her entry into the race would be met with questions regarding her experience and qualifications. But in the period leading up to the primaries, she would have the opportunity to dispel such concerns by boning up on a variety of issues that didn't fall under her purview as governor -- particularly in the foreign policy arena. By the time she made it through the primaries and into the general election, those worries about her breadth of knowledge would have mostly subsided and she would be on equal footing with her hypothetical opponent (say a veteran U.S. Senator).

But when a governor with less than two years experience is tapped as the vice presidential candidate in late August, there's no adequate window to get familiar with the full scope of issues being considered at the federal level. This is why, as Steve Benen recently noted, no presidential candidate has picked a governor as their running mate in the last 40 years:

To be sure, there have been plenty of governors at the top of the ticket in the post-Watergate era -- Carter, Reagan, Dukakis, Clinton, and Bush -- but none, until Palin, in the #2 slot.

Of course, when a governor seeks the presidential nomination, he or she has plenty of time to get familiar with national/federal issues while on the campaign trail. But those governors then tend to pick someone for the ticket who is already familiar with Washington. Clinton picked Gore; Reagan picked Bush; Bush picked Cheney; Dukakis picked Bentsen; etc.

Here's another interesting tidbit that puts the choice of Palin in historical perspective: she was sworn into office as governor in December 2006, two months before Obama began his presidential campaign.