September 2008 Archives

This came out on Sept 4, but this is the first time I have seen it. I was basing my earlier post that Gov. Palin is most like Spiro Agnew of any other modern vice presidential candidate on the similarity of their experience. Jack Shafer wrote for Slate that

she'll play the role of Spiro Agnew to McCain's Nixon, dismissing reporters' tough questions as effete, impudent, sacrilegious, snobby, intrusive, unpatriotic, hostile, disrespectful, chauvinistic, "East Coast," unfair, unbalanced, liberal, biased, trivial, hypothetical, elitist, and as partisan attempts to lasso her with a "gotcha."

Recently, someone commented on another blog that Palin has less experience than any Vice Presidential candidate for a major party in the modern era. I suggested that this is wrong: Sprio Agnew (US Vice President from 1969 to 1973) had the same type of experience!¹

Both Gov. Palin and Vice President Agnew were involved in "city" government only before becoming governor.²

Both served only two years as governor before becoming the Republican VP candidate.

Both are running with a candidate who reinvented himself after running eight years prior. (That could be most candidates.)

And the big finale! . . .

If Alaska were a US city, according to the 2006 Census numbers it would rank in size (~670,000) close to Baltimore County (~750,000)³, where Spiro Agnew cut his guilty, guilty, guilty teeth taking money from strangers!

How They're Not Alike

Mayor Palin served two years longer than County Executive Agnew did.

Back in 1970, when Agnew was County Executive of Baltimore County (1962 – 1966), it had a growing population of between 500-600,000 (estimated from US Census: should exclude City of Baltimore). When Palin served as mayor, Wasilla had a growing population of 6-10,000, or about 1% of Baltimore County forty years ago.

Alaska has a budget of around US$4.4 billion, with another US$2 billion or so in surplus money. Maryland currently has a budget of $30 billion. I don't think there is any surplus.^4,5

Maryland had had a population around 3.9 million when Agnew was governor. Alaska's current population today is about 1/6 of that.

Alaska is much larger in geographical area than either Baltimore County or Maryland. Maryland is about 2% of Alaska's size.

Let's also note another comparison that might fit. Calvin Collidge didn't have much more experience than Palin does when he accepted the Republican Party Vice Presidential candidacy. (He was Governor of Massachusetts for two years, but Lt. Gov. for three before that.) He was a bit older than she, at 50. He ended up assuming the presidency with the death of the corrupt Harding. He was also popular with his constituency, but not quite the conservative.

Collidge might be a reasonable comparison, but his extra years as an elected official of a large state (3.85 million in 1920, or around 4% of the US total) make it less of a fit.

Here's another: When Gov. Wilson assumed the office of President, he had been Governor of New Jersey for two years (1911-1913). Before that he was president of Princeton University.

Of course, most Republicans will join me in my lack of admiration for the 28th president. Still, he was a competent executive until his stroke in 1919. He certainly got things done, even if I don't think they were all for the best.

That was so much fun that I'm going to look for a comparison to Sen. Biden. Hmmmm.... Sen. Johnson comes to mind quickly, doesn't it? That doesn't bode well for Sen. Obama if he wins. Of course, Obama resembles McGovern a bit but Biden as Sargent Shriver?

Joseph Taylor Robinson? "Cactus Jack" Garner, maybe?

1. I also made the comparison with Gov. Theodore Roosevelt of New York, who had only served two years before becoming the Republican candidate for Vice President. But he had already served in Washington as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under McKinley so I didn't think it was as close. He did do some trust busting, which might be compared to some of Palin's actions taxing big oil.

2. Agnew was the executive of Baltimore County and not Baltimore. They're separate governmental bodies and areas. But it's like a city. Wasillia would have been classified a village growing into town status if it were in Ohio. So it's a wash between them on definitions.

3. Estimates from US Census data.

4. Even I'm too lazy to find Maryland's 1968 budget in the archives somewhere, adjust to 2006 dollars, and then make a comparison.

5. Okay, apparently I'm not too busy to chase mindless details. Maryland's budget for 1968-1969 was $1.16 billion ("Maryland's Budget Provides for Few New Programs", Washington Post, March 23, 1968; pp. B2). Adjusted for inflation, that's a little bigger (around US$6.8B in 2006 dollars) than Alaska's current budget + surplus.