Describing his “experience” in an interview with Anderson Cooper, Barack Obama said:

BO: Well, you know, my understanding is that, uh, Governor Palin’s town of Wasilly [sic] has, uh, 50 employees, uh, uh, we’ve got 2500, uh, in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. Uh, uh, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month. Uh, so I think that, uh, our ability to manage large systems, uh, and to, uh, execute, uh, I think has been made clear over the last couple of years. Uh, and certainly, in terms of, uh, the legislation that I’ve passed just dealing with this issue post-Katrina, uh, of how we handle emergency management. The fact that, uh, many of my recommendations were adopted and are being put in place, uh, as we speak indicates to extent to which we can provide the kinds of support and good service that the American people expect.

But Ed Morrisey and a few others have dissected that statement a little bit…let’s consider:

BHO: Well, you know, my understanding is that, uh, Governor Palin’s town of Wasilly [sic] has, uh, 50 employees, uh, uh, we’ve got 2500, uh, in this campaign.

Fact is, Barack isn’t considering that Sarah Palin isn’t Mayor anymore. She’s Governor of the State of Alaska, and as such the chief executive of 25,000 people.

BHO: I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. Uh, uh, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month.

Fact is, as Governor, Sarah Palin operates a $9-10 billion budget, and manages $13 billion in revenue

That’s “b” as in billion.

The McCain Campaign responded to Obama’s silly claims:

“For Barack Obama to argue that he’s experienced enough to be president because he’s running for president is desperate circular logic and it’s laughable. It is a testament to Barack Obama’s inexperience and failing qualifications that he would stoop to passing off his candidacy as comparable to Governor Sarah Palin’s executive experience managing a budget of over 10 billion dollar dollars, and more than 24,000 employees.” —Tucker Bounds, spokesman John McCain 2008

McCain Camp Response to Obama’s Remarks on Palin’s Experience
Time

Generous H/T all around to

Ed Morrissey via Hot Air: Obama’s answer on experience: But I’m such a great campaigner! Update: McCain response — “Desperate, laughable”

D.J. via The right-wing liberal: The Audacity of Hype tries the “experience” card again – and fails
More to the point, Obama wasn’t managing a campaign until he launched his exploratory committee in January 2007 (CNN), by which point Sarah Palin had already been Governor of Alaska for more than a month (Chris Boese).

The Weekly Standard: Ready on Day One?

See also: A Tale of Two Resumes, Barack Obama versus Sarah Palin
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.

By the way, have you noticed no one seems to be talking about Joe Biden anymore?