Posts Tagged Iraq

That’s it; I’m through blogging about Sarah Palin

September 25, 2008 at 4:39 pm · Filed under foreign affairs, Politics ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ok, maybe not.  But I am beginning to actually feel for Governor Palin.  Something in the way Garrison Keillor just ripped the bandaid off – courageously, I might add – in his searing commentary earlier this week has affected me.  Keillor admonished Senator McCain for “exploiting a symbolic woman, an eager zealot who is so far out of her depth that it isn’t funny anymore. Anyone with a heart has to hurt for how Mr. McCain has made a fool of her.”

It’s a sort of moral dilemma.  If Palin is in over her head, do you just set down the gloves and let this thing play out?  Do I really need to say anything when these are the snippets we have to work with?

“I am honored to meet you,” Ms. Palin said [upon meeting the new Pakistani President, Ali Asif Zardari.]

“You are even more gorgeous than you are on the (inaudible),” Mr. Zardari said.

“You are so nice,” Ms. Palin replied. “Thank you.”

“Now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you,” Mr. Zardari continued. At which point an aide told the two to shake hands.

“I’m supposed to pose again,” Ms. Palin said.

“If he’s insisting,” Mr. Zardari said, “I might hug.”

This one:

Earlier Wednesday, Ms. Palin had met with Jalal Talabani, the president of Iraq, and other Iraqi officials.

As the meeting began, Ms. Palin made small talk with Hiro Ibrahim Ahmed, the first lady of Iraq. “Plenty to do here, isn’t there?” Ms. Palin remarked, presumably about New York. “Plenty to see.”

With a bit of nationalist pride, or perhaps the irritation of a spouse not thrilled about being dragged along on a business trip, the first lady replied, “I have plenty to do at home, also.”

Or this one:

COURIC: But he’s been in Congress for 26 years. He’s been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee. And he has almost always sided with less regulation, not more.

PALIN: He’s also known as the maverick, though. Taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party. Trying to get people to understand what he’s been talking about — the need to reform government.

COURIC: I’m just going to ask you one more time, not to belabor the point. Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation?

PALIN: I’ll try to find you some, and I’ll bring them to you.

This one, which you have surely heard over and over again:

GIBSON: Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?

PALIN: In what respect, Charlie?

GIBSON: The Bush — well, what do you — what do you interpret it to be?

PALIN: His world view.

GIBSON: No, the Bush doctrine, enunciated September 2002, before the Iraq war.

PALIN: I believe that what President Bush has attempted to do is rid this world of Islamic extremism, terrorists who are hell bent on destroying our nation. There have been blunders along the way, though. There have been mistakes made. And with new leadership, and that’s the beauty of American elections, of course, and democracy, is with new leadership comes opportunity to do things better.

GIBSON: The Bush doctrine, as I understand it, is that we have the right of anticipatory self-defense, that we have the right to a preemptive strike against any other country that we think is going to attack us.  Do you agree with that?

PALIN: Charlie, if there is legitimate and enough intelligence that tells us that a strike is imminent against American people, we have every right to defend our country. In fact, the president has the obligation, the duty to defend.

The Bush administration made countless false and exaggerated claims to go into Iraq, but they never claimed there was an imminent attack.  And, Saddam Hussein was many ugly things, but he was not an ally to Islamic extremists.

And now this from Laura Bush, who is a pretty straight shooter, to her credit:

In an interview on Wednesday with CNN, the first lady, Laura Bush, was asked whether Ms. Palin had enough foreign policy experience. “Of course she doesn’t have that,” Mrs. Bush said.

“You know, that’s not been her role,” she said. “But I think she is a very quick study, and fortunately John McCain does have that sort of experience.”

If Sarah Palin, self-described hockey mom with real-life family crises just like the rest of us, had the national and international experience of Hillary Clinton and Condoleeza Rice (neither of whom I am wild about), well, she’d be a force to be reckoned with.  But Garrison Keillor is right: it is painfully obvious that Palin is out of her league.  And while she deserves a certain amount of our respect as would any other working mother (or father) in this world, I was put off that she “didn’t blink” at the VP offer from John McCain.  If she isn’t informed enough to know she isn’t informed enough to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, it either takes some hubris, or else a lack of intelligence and critical thinking.  Being a quick study does not bestow sound judgment.

I appreciate the fact that many Americans, especially women, like being able to relate to this candidate.  She seems like many of us.  But ask yourself, do you have what it takes to be president?  Does your neighbor?

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McCain rains on Spain mainly in the plains*

September 19, 2008 at 11:54 am · Filed under foreign affairs ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

*UPDATE: I came up with the title for this post before my husband found this.  I think mine’s better.

When John McCain referred to President Putin of Germany (wrong, but I am 100% percent sure Sarah Palin could tell him which country Putin was and kind of still is president of), you kind of said to yourself- whoa, major stumble!  Who confuses Russia’s Putin with Germany’s Angela Merkel, especially since we love Germany under Merkel (especially when she vetoed Obama’s use of the Brandenberg Gate for his Berlin speech earlier this summer).  But still, you know the man was tired, or thinking too fast, and could be forgiven such an error.

But yesterday’s Q and A moment between John McCain and a spanish news wire reporter certainly gave you pause.  Not merely because McCain didn’t seem to know that Spain is in Europe, not in Latin America.  But because he went on to refuse to commit to meeting its Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, now in his second term, referring to Spain as an adversary.  Now, this is the same Spain which suffered the biggest terrorist attack on European soil since the U.S. attacks on September 11, when terrorist set bombs off on commuter trains in Madrid.  Oh, and Spain is NATO ally.

Reporter: Let’s talk about Spain, if you are elected President would you be willing to invite Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to the White House to meet with you?

McCain: I would be willing to meet with those leaders who are friends and want to work with us in a cooperative fashion. And by the way President Calderon of Mexico is fighting a very very tough fight against the drug cartels… I attend to move forward with relations and invite as many of them as I can, of those leaders, to the White House.

Reporter: Would that invitation be extended to the Zapatero government, to the President, itself.

McCain: Uhh.. I honestly have to look at the relations and the situations and the priorities but I can assure you I will establish closer relations with our friends and I will stand up to those who want to do harm to the United States of America. I know how to do both.

Reporter: So you have to wait and see if he’s willing to meet with you…will you be able to do it in the White House?

McCain: All I can tell you is that I have a clear record of working with leaders in the Hemisphere that are friends with us and standing up to those who are not and that’s judged on the basis of the importance of our relationship with Latin America and the entire region.

Reporter: Okay what about Eur… I am talking about the President of Spain.

McCain: What about me what?

Reporter: Are you willing to meet with him if you are elected President?

McCain: I am willing to meet with any leader who is dedicated to the same principles and philosophy that we are for human rights democracy and freedom and I will stand up to those that do not.  

You would think that McCain would remember Zapatero since he withdrew Spanish troops from Iraq after being elected on that promise.  Perhaps he still holds a grudge (something he is known to do). I wonder if prodded, would he remember that when Zapatero pulled Spanish troops out of Iraq, he moved them to Afghanistan, where he thought they were really needed.  Isn’t that the sort of thing that a prominent American politician, now running for president against John McCain, has been suggesting for quite some time?  No wonder Spain is an adversary.

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