Nothing like some angry looking CAPITAL NUMBERS to get some attention, huh?
Look, this isn't one of those diaries where I yell through my keyboard at a whole bunch of people who are saying things that I disagree with. No yelling. I promise, if you follow me below the jump, you will see no more CAPITAL LETTERS, and you'll also see an explanation of why we shouldn't waste our time talking about Palin's experience.
When I say people need to shut the hell up about Palin's lack of experience, I don't mean that they're making a point that has no merit. It has merit. Still, shut up. That's rarely a viable political strategy, but here I think it is.
I am a litigator. Us litigators often talk about something called the "burden of proof." I'm sure many of you are familiar with the concept. For those who aren't, I won't bore you with law school jargon. Generally, it works like this: the party advancing an argument has the burden of establishing that there's something in the argument that's worth responding to. If it meets that burden, the burden shifts to the other side to come up with something worthwhile to say that undermines it. If it can't meet the burden, the other side wins the argument even if it does not say anything. Got that? A party can win an argument even if it doesn't say a word.
So, what does this have to do with explaining why we shouldn't talk about Palin's experience?
The candidate advancing the argument that experience is more important than anything else is John McCain. He has the burden of establishing that it's a sensible position to take. Now that he has chosen a running mate with a paucity of political experience, he can't meet the initial threshold he has to meet in order to shift the burden to our side.
This is a gift, people. For months, we have wanted a campaign focused on the issues. And we have complained about Republican attempts to duck the issues by having a campaign about experience instead. Now they've complicated their ability to do so. Let's not help them. Let's talk about the issues, and let the other guys try to figure out how they're going to make the conversation about something else. They weren't having much luck doing that before today, and now they made it a whole lot harder on themselves to pull it off.
So, if you feel the need to spend your time talking about Palin's lack of experience, please, I beg you, SHU...
Oh, yeah. I said I wouldn't do that.