Who decides what "experience" counts?

Sarah Palin took the stage at the Republican National Convention last night in part to answer criticisms from Democrats that she didn’t have the experience to be Vice President. Her rebuke was direct: who are you, she asked, to call me inexperienced?

Time will tell if it resonates, but the theme of liberal arrogance worked well for the Republicans in 2004, and the Democrats are in danger of making the same mistake twice. By belittling Palin’s offices in Alaska, Obama’s minions are really belittling that state and its voters.

Even beyond Alaska’s borders, voters don’t want to hear that representing an urban State Senate district worth more than running a rural town. Strategy like that makes for electoral maps like this: