Learning on the Job

Now is the time when we juxtapose, Small Dead Animals-style:

My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of “personal discovery.”

— Gov. Sarah Palin, at the 2008 Republican convention.

Chuck Hagel, Barack Obama’s nominee to head the defense department, said in his confirmation hearing Thursday that he doesn’t “know much” about military programs and technology. “I’ve said I don’t know enough about it,” Hagel said, in a response to Maine senator Angus King. “There are a lot of things I don’t know about. I, if confirmed, intend to know a lot more than I do. I will have to.”

— “Hagel: I Don’t Know Enough About the Defense Department — ‘There are a lot of things I don’t know about,'” the Weekly Standard today.

(Yes, I know I linked to the Hagel post at the Weekly Standard in the previous hour, but I thought it was worth juxtaposing with the warning from Gov. Palin four years ago.)

Related: The MSM, double-standards, and “the Zen of Chuck Hagel.”