Defending Palin’s Foreign Policy Experience
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Foreign Policy, McCain, Palin
John McCain struggles to come up with a good way to make Palin seem more palatable…
In a joint appearance, the Republican presidential candidate said defensively: “She has been commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard. Fact. On September 11 a contingent of the guard deployed to Iraq and her son was one of them so I think she understands national security challenges.â€Mr McCain asserted that as governor of an oil-producing state Mrs Palin had “obvious knowledge of the energy security issueâ€, which was of vital concern to the US.
Listen, the national guard thing is thin and they should really stop talking about it. But then again, it might be all she has. Because to claim that she’s ready to deal with the complicated challenges of the global chess game we find ourselves in just because she’s a mother of soldier is laughable at best. Especially given how the decisions of anti-war mothers have been characterized in the past 5 years. And then there’s the “Alaska is near Russia” talking point, and we’ve all seen how far that’s gotten.
So as far as actual foreign policy leadership and judgement, I think Chuck Hagel will echo the swing voters…
“She doesn’t have any foreign policy credentials. You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don’t know what you can say. You can’t say anything.”
However, I will say that the way that McCain himself has talked about Palin’s knowledge on energy, I’m hoping we get an incredibly substantive speech from her soon on why the McCain/Palin energy policy is the one to go with. Because if Palin is as much of a political superstar as the right claims, she should be able to run circles around anybody in this campaign when it comes to the energy independence issue, right?
More as it develops…
This entry was posted on Thursday, September 18th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Foreign Policy, McCain, Palin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Is it a requirement to have been to another country to know how to deal with other countries? No. However, not having visited other countries may also speak to a more closed minded person not interested in broader culture or ideas different than their own. It is not absolute though.
I think a stronger attack on Palin should just be her total lack of any demonstration of her qualifications. She has not successfully answered a question on foriegn policy. After two weeks we still have no actual foriegn policy answers from her. Now we need more than that we need some economic answers from her too.
Her answer about what AIG does and whether or not we should bail them out was nonsense and people are still trying to figure out what she said. when you left to defend the indefensible you get crazy justifications.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
wait i forgot the answer about going to war with Russia over Georgia or the Ukraine. We do know that much.
September 18th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Queue the right’s canned retort that Obama has no more experience than Palin: 3….2….1….
September 18th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
(no retort required)
September 18th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
As long as it has to do with drilling right here right now, it will be substantive. There will be much talk of nuclear, but not much talk of storing waste–except in Nevada. Palin will talk about how Alaska provides 20% of the nation’s energy–a baldfaced lie. Some lip service about solar, more about ethanol, next to nothing on non-foodstuff based ethanol–ensuring higher food prices for another 4 years.
That plan and speech will be full of something, you bet.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Usually, a retort is “canned” because it has at, the very least, it has an element of truth to it, which in this case, it has a lot of Truth to it. You see that is why a retort can be “canned” to begin with, if the retort is false then its “canning” ability significantly impaired.
So…and how much foreign policy experience does Barrack Obama have? Queue uncanned (and thus nonsensical) lefty retort of a variety of meaningless hostilities in 3,2,1….
September 18th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Justin,
You missed a quote from McCain on this point that I can’t believe hasn’t been talked about. McCain didn’t just say Mrs. Palin had: “Obvious knowledge of the energy security issue”. He actually had the audacity to say during an answer to a question about her qualification on National Security that she knows more about energy than anybody else in the country. I kid you not! Here’s the link:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/09/palin_on_energy.html
now if this doesn’t create a credibility gap- chasm- GRAND CANYON I don’t know what would!
September 18th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Barack Obama is on the senate foreign relations committee. So he has that. Plus being able to handle foriegn policy is not really about experience, it is about demonstrating competency. Palin has failed to demonstrate basic competency on the subject.
September 18th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Palin’s son is in the Army, not the National Guard. McCain really just says anything, truth be damned.
September 19th, 2008 at 2:30 am
I knew you wouldn’t let me down, J Harden….