Archive for September 13, 2008

Sarah Palin: Foreign Policy Maven

September 13, 2008 at 11:06 pm · Filed under foreign affairs, Politics ·Tagged , , , , ,

So, it occurred to me when I got an invitation on Facebook to join a group called “I have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin,” that I do, in fact, have more foreign policy experience than Sarah Palin.  (At the time of writing, the group had about 81,000 members)

While working what I would consider a mid-level position on a powerful U.S. congressional committee (NOT on Appropriations;o), as well as in the nonprofit sector, I met President Uribe of Colombia, then-President Toledo of Peru, and then-President Fidel Castro.  I have also met with foreign ministry officials (including at the equivalent level of Deputy Secretary of State), and I have met with ministers and top officials in foreign national banks, commerce, agriculture, trade, education, communications, and probably some others.  I have also negotiated trade deals in some of these meetings.  I have traveled to 17 countries outside of the United States, and lived in three of them for at least six months.  And I’m nobody. 

But now Governor Palin, who is nearly a decade older than me–a nobody–has a slightly different resume.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin got her first passport in 2006 and has visited just four countries, and has had little involvement in her state’s cross-border issues, raising questions about her supporters’ assertions that Alaska’s proximity to Russia has given her unique experience on foreign affairs…..

Palin has also visited one fewer country than originally stated by her Alaska office. Earlier in the week, the governor’s Alaska spokeswoman was quoted as saying Palin had traveled to Iraq, Kuwait, Germany, and Ireland, in addition to Canada. McCain campaign spokeswoman Maria Comella acknowledged yesterday that Ireland was only a refueling stop on a trip in July 2007 to visit Alaskan National Guard troops in Kuwait and Iraq.

Shoot, I guess now I have to scratch Slovakia (or is that Czechoslovakia, I get them confused) off my list even though my train stopped in Bratislava for like an hour, and if I had not been so lazy I could have run outside the train station and snapped a picture!!

Nonetheless, even with just 16 countries on my list, I would still make a way more qualified veep than Sarah Palin, who by the way, has never met a head of state, even from Russia, a country so close that people with excellent vision (or babe librarian eyeglasses) can see it from Alaska.  How does that make you feel?  Like joining that group on Facebook?

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Barbara WaWa 3 – McCain 0

September 13, 2008 at 1:17 pm · Filed under Politics ·Tagged , , , , , ,

So, my hat’s off to the ladies of The View, who hosted John McCain, and later Cindy McCain, on their show yesterday. Particularly in the first segment of the show, they asked a lot of tough questions.

The first exchange was my favorite, because Barbara Walters took on what McCain expects Palin to do in Washington.  They went back and forth, her asking “What specifically is she going to do in Washington?” to which McCain repeatedly answered, “She’s going to do what she did in Alaska,” “Reform Washington,” “Reform earmark spending,” break up the good ole boys network,” and so on.  Watching him wriggle his way around Walters’ quest for a specific answer was, if you want to believe in John McCain’s sound and thoughtful judgment on this one, was disappointing.  He was reading cue cards from memory.  

But it wasn’t just the rote memorization of spin that disappointed, it was that he came with characterizations that aren’t supported by the facts.  He said, “she sold the plane,” (at a loss, noted Walters) “she fired the chef,” –which, apparently also isn’t true (she transferred the chef to cook for the legislature, since she was living in Wasilla, rather than Juneau, the capital.  Imagine if Bush had decided to base himself in Crawford during his presidency). But the truly outrageous claim he made was when Barbara Walters pointed out Palin had requested earmarks of the federal government.  His response: “not as governor she didn’t.”  According to the Wall Street Journal, she took more than more than $700 million in earmarks from the federal government in her 18 months as governor of Alaska.  Don’t tell me that no one over at McCain headquarters picked up the hallowed WSJ three days ago.  The strategy appears to be as long as you keep saying it, people may still believe you.

Case in point, Elizabeth Hasslebeck jumped into the spending discussion to say that Palin had cut spending by 80%.  I don’t even know how to respond.  Aside from the fact that it isn’t true, it isn’t even possible.  And so what horrifies me is if this TV show host, watched by millions of Americans and surely staffed by countless producers and research assistants, can blurt out totally uninformed untruths like this, how will Americans with fewer resources and less time ever get correct information about Alaska’s budget under Sarah Palin?  Here’s how.  

Now, another important question was asked by Joy Behar about the two new McCain ads- she said to McCain, “We know that these two ads are untrue, are lies….do you really approve them?”  And Walters, truly on her game, chimed in to say, you yourself used the lipstick on a pig comment.  Oh, but that was about healthcare (Hillary Clinton’s healthcare plan, by the way).  But Babs was right behind him- Obama was talking about CHANGE.

But when he really got around to addressing the pathetic lipstick controversy (he didn’t touch the sex ed ad and I wish they would have pressed him on that) McCain said this: “he (Obama) chooses his words very carefully, he shouldn’t have said it.”  (After which I heard in my head, “I on the other hand, am a hothead and that is why you can’t take anything I say seriously.”)  He said it twice, again with a memorized cue card.  “This is a tough election,” and if Obama had just accepted his townhall meeting requests McCain is sure the “tone” of the election would be different.  Of course, Walters offered to try to get Obama to come on the show with McCain–if McCain could get Palin on The View.  Yeah, good Luck with that, ladies.

 

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