Is Palin Really Qualified?

Let's try a simple logic exercise.

Imagine you are on the Board of Directors for a billion-dollar, multi-national company. It is your job to select the next CEO for your company. You have been given two candidates from which to choose. Candidate #1 is the president of his current company, which he founded. Candidate #2 never even reached VP level; in fact, his current title is merely Regional Director.

If you were to base your choice solely on this information, it might appear that Candidate # 1 is more qualified. Surely you want a president over a regional director, right? Maybe. But what if you were given the following additional information:

• Candidate # 1 is the president of a small company with 5 employees. It is a moderately successful printing and publishing company located in a rural town. They do about $250,000 in annual sales.
• Candidate # 2 is the director of regional operations for a large company whose primary businesses include manufacturing, retail sales, and business services. He oversees the efforts of more than 2500 employees at 15 sites in his region, with a combined annual budget of slightly less than $300 million.

Now who do you think is more qualified to take over your company? Based on the expanded information, one is led to the unmistakable conclusion that you want Candidate # 2.

So the next time someone tells you that an Alaskan governor is better prepared to be president than an Illinois senator, make sure they have considered these statistics:

Alaska:

• Population: about 700,000
• Gross state product: about $40 billion.
• Primary Industries: Oil. (More than 80% of the state's revenues are derived from petroleum extraction. The gross state product is also a somewhat misleading number as a result.)

Illinois:

• Population: about 13,000,000
• Gross state product: about $600 billion.
• Primary Industries: Chemical manufacturing, food manufacturing, machinery, fabricated metal products, plastics and rubber products, transportation equipment, computer and electronic products, financial services, publishing, petroleum, and coal.

In our example, Candidate # 1 is not qualified to take over a billion dollar company. Just as Sarah Palin is not qualified to take over the United States of America.