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VP? If She Can Do It, So Can I

Ex-mayor of tiny Calif. hamlet lists his qualifications to hit the trail

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 20, 2008 1:17 PM CDT

(Newser) – If being mayor of a town of 6,000 puts you on course for the vice presidency, then Mark Friedman, former mayor of El Cerrito, Calif., is ready for Washington, he writes in Salon. “I have proved I have the inspirational qualities required to say a few words at the annual Little League pancake breakfast,” he points out. And his view of Berkeley from his house amounts to sturdy foreign policy experience.

Friedman has shown his ability to stay up late at council meetings, just in case the phone rings at 3am. And he’s a “cheap date,” asking far less from his community than the $24,000 SUV Palin “insisted” she get. There's only one problem: “I am honest,” Friedman writes. “I never learned to enjoy lying,” a fact that “might be a deal-breaker” in his quest for the national stage.

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (3)]

Trucks and cars drive past a shopping area with national chain and big box stores in Wasilla, Alaska, where Palin was mayor, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008. (AP Photo/Al Grillo)

Republican vice-presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin waves to supporters during a rally in Lancaster, Pa., Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Republican vice presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin addresses the crowd Sunday, Oct. 19, 2008 at Great Southwest Aviation in Roswell, New Mexico. (AP Photo/Mark Wilson)

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The leadership skills I honed while listening to our city’s self-appointed “watchdog” insult me and my colleagues and the city staff and my household pets will work well when dealing with Congress and Medvedev and the UN. - Mark Friedman

Palin also demanded fierce loyalty. In El Cerrito, the only loyalty the mayor typically requires is that you don’t slash his or her tires while the City Council meeting is in progress. Getting Triple A to come out at 1 am can require a long wait. -

And I confess—I did once vote against reappointing a commissioner who had called me “swarthy” and one of our leading community volunteers “a vamp” in a very poorly written Op-Ed hit piece in the local rag. I was outvoted. -

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VP? If She Can Do It, So Can I