A Tale of Two Résumés
Barack Obama versus Sarah Palin.
by Dean Barnett
09/02/2008 8:50:00 AM
Having spent over a decade as a headhunter for lawyers in another life, I’ve seen many résumés. And every résumé tells a story. The stories told by Barack Obama’s and Sarah Palin’s résumés could hardly be more different for two people of roughly the same age and aspirations.
WHAT STORY DOES Barack Obama’s résumé tell? Obama became the head of the Harvard Law Review in 1990 and graduated Harvard Law magna cum laude in 1991. These accomplishments suggest great intelligence and strong interpersonal skills. They also suggest limitless potential.
So what did Obama choose to do with his limitless potential after leaving Harvard? Not much. His first two years out of law school, he began writing a book, commenced lecturing at the University of Chicago Law School and returned to his old vocation of community organizing. Obama’s résumé would probably advertise the fact that he eschewed big money options to better serve humanity in these various capacities. Many members of the legal community would view these claims of selflessness with skepticism. Some cynical readers of his résumé would infer that he spent the time “trying to find himself,” and perhaps think of the old Bill Cosby crack that after two years of searching, he should have been able to find not just himself but a couple of other people as well.
All readers of his résumé circa 1993 would ask what Obama accomplished at his serial vocations. And there the story gets grim. He didn’t finish his book during the two years in question. He didn’t pursue any scholarship at the University of Chicago, so his career there stalled at lecturer and never advanced to the professor level. And as is ever the case with something as nebulous as community organizing, pointing to tangible accomplishments would be impossible.
Thus begins a pattern of under-achievement, or more specifically non-achievement, that has followed Obama since law school. In later years, Obama practiced law for a few years and then he had enough of that. His 1995 book, Dreams From My Father showed much promise, yet Obama didn’t further explore his skills in this area until over a decade later with the best forgotten campaign tome, The Audacity of Hope. Similarly, Obama was a part time state legislator of minimal accomplishments. When Obama went to the United States Senate, he impressed his colleagues with his potential. But he again never attempted to tap that potential, beginning a run for president shortly after his arrival in the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body.
Unlike Obama, one wouldn’t look at the early years in Sarah Palin’s résumé and necessarily see unlimited potential. A 1987 graduate of the University of Idaho, Palin’s greatest accomplishments from her youth would come in the “Miscellaneous Information” portion of the résumé. The fact that she had won a beauty contest would impress some people. Her sinking of a critical free throw on a broken ankle in her high school state championship would impress others. Still, there would be nothing in Palin’s résumé from her younger years that would suggest potential like Obama’s.
And yet throughout her adult life Palin, again unlike Obama, overachieved. In 1992, she got elected to the Wasilla, AK city council. In 1996 she became mayor. She was by all accounts a very successful mayor. Her résumé entry for her mayoral years would have all sorts of bullet points for tangible accomplishments like reducing city property taxes by 40 percent. Similarly, Palin’s time as governor has been distinguished. Both would starkly contrast with the various stops in Obama’s career where he occasionally held impressive titles but accomplished little.
Two things would leap out from Sarah Palin’s résumé–a pattern of overachievement and a pattern of actually getting things done. Two things would also leap out from Barack Obama’s résumé–an undeniable wealth of talent and an equally undeniable dearth of accomplishments.
While it has become almost a cliché on the right to belittle Obama as a talker rather than a doer, his résumé suggests just that. Obama does have the requisite brain power to be president; it’s unlikely that the intellectual demands of the job would overwhelm him. But his past work experience is unnerving. Obama had ample talent to excel at all the other positions he has held, and yet he accomplished little at each. So what would he do as president? Would his efforts in the Oval Office be as indifferent and irresolute as they’ve been at every other stop along his professional path? Could one imagine him making the political sacrifices and showing the fondness for bold action that characterized Harry S. Truman?
As for Palin, she lacks Obama’s glittering Ivy League credentials. While that fact scandalizes vast portions of the Bos-Wash corridor, the scandalized neglect the most common purpose for an education–to develop one’s abilities to such a point that one can actually begin accomplishing things. And there again is where Palin shines–she has gotten a tremendous amount done everyplace she has been.
In truth, Sarah Palin is the kind of employee virtually every enterprise seeks–the kind who gets things done. And Barack Obama is the kind of employee a company hires only when it’s in the mood for taking a risk and willing to wager that the candidate’s past performance isn’t predictive of his future efforts.
Dean Barnett is a staff writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
I still consider myself a “Redneck.” If you look up the history of Rednecks, you will find the our roots run deep in the Labor Movement. I’ve never played hockey, but I did play football, another collision sport. If I could just put down my walker, I would still be playing it. I, too, like to go camping, hang with the boys, and go fishing. Once in a while, I even use bait. And, if anyone messes with me or my family, I, too, will kick a little a$$.
