The Case Against Sarah Palin, Part 1

I think it was an ABC news anchor who said, poignantly, “If John McCain is elected, then the country is one, seventy-two year old heart beat away from having Sarah Palin as its next President.”

This prospect scares the hell out of me. I like McCain. I like both Obama and McCain for different reasons and I think the country will benefit greatly with either man as its leader. However, McCain’s choice of Palin as his VP has completely dissolved any reservation of endorsement I may have had for him.

Let’s critically examine some of Palin’s candid interviews.. I managed to get my internet hands on some unedited interviews with Gibson and Kouric:

http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2008/09/13/abc-news-edited-out-key-parts-sarah-palin-interview

http://tv.spreadit.org/sarah-palin-katie-couric-interviewpalin-couric-interview-transcript/
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GIBSON: Let me ask you about some specific national security situations.
PALIN: Sure.
GIBSON: Let’s start, because we are near Russia, let’s start with Russia and Georgia.
The administration has said we’ve got to maintain the territorial integrity of Georgia. Do you believe the United States should try to restore Georgian sovereignty over South Ossetia and Abkhazia?
PALIN: First off, we’re going to continue good relations with Saakashvili there. I was able to speak with him the other day and giving him my commitment, as John McCain’s running mate, that we will be committed to Georgia. And we’ve got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable and we have to keep…
GIBSON: You believe unprovoked.
PALIN: I do believe unprovoked and we have got to keep our eyes on Russia, under the leadership there. I think it was unfortunate. That manifestation that we saw with that invasion of Georgia shows us some steps backwards that Russia has recently taken away from the race toward a more democratic nation with democratic ideals. That’s why we have to keep an eye on Russia.
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SERIOUSLY? Russia’s actions are unprovoked? This demonstrates Palin’s complete ignorance in really basic foreign affairs. I don’t tend to blame people for ignorance… but Palin is making statements as though she has any grasp of reality. The Russian response to NATO has been a long time coming. The Soviet Union collapsed, but NATO (organized in response to the USSR) has not. Russia, quite understandably, has seen NATO since then as an institutional enemy. Now, to add fuel to the fire, NATO has begun recruiting FORMER SOVIET BLOC countries into its fold. Honestly, what purpose is this serving other than pissing off Russia? Russia has long opposed the expansion of NATO, yet the western world has simply ignored or refused any compromise. I consider myself a patriotic guy. However, how are activities like the expansion of NATO, creation of missle defense in POLAND, and training of former soviet bloc countries (e.g. Georgia) improving our foreign relationship with Russia?!

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/13/us.russia.diplomacy/index.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7573409.stm
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080919/twl-russia-nato-provoked-georgia-war-3fd0ae9.html

On to more Palin inanity:
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Couric: You’ve cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?
Sarah Palin:
That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and, on our other side, the land-boundary that we have with Canada. It’s funny that a comment like that was kinda made to … I don’t know, you know … reporters.
Couric: Mocked?
Palin:
Yeah, mocked, I guess that’s the word, yeah.

Couric: Well, explain to me why that enhances your foreign-policy credentials.
Palin:
Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. And there…

Couric: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?
Palin:
We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state.
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So Russia as a neighbor makes her an expert on foreign policy? What’s this about Putin “rearing” his ugly mug and invading U.S. airspace?

So being able to “see” a country qualifies your foreign policy. Well then, I’m a foreign policy GOD because I know how to use Google Earth. http://earth.google.com/

Ignore the fact that she seems to be choking on those words about as badly as she regularly chokes on Regan’s cold, hard dick. Seriously, what’s with the credit Ronnie’s been getting lately? Cursory study of the Cold War reveals that he had very little to do with it’s ending. He had less to do with the fall of the Berlin Wall than Hasselhoff. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_wall Seriously. Simply wiki “Berlin Wall” and read the real story of why it fell (spoiler: it was a fluke public announcement by a very unprepared minister of propaganda named Schabowski. No joke).
Back to the decline of Western Civ:
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GIBSON: And under the NATO treaty, wouldn’t we then have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia?
PALIN: Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help.
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WHAT? Look at the link to the transcript. I thought she didn’t want another cold war.
How much more do you need to see to see how doomed we are?
She also regularly mentions that the war is "God's plan"
How would she know what God's plan is?!
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PALIN: But the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln’s words when he said — first, he suggested never presume to know what God’s will is, and I would never presume to know God’s will or to speak God’s words.
But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that’s a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side.
That’s what that comment was all about, Charlie. And I do believe, though, that this war against extreme Islamic terrorists is the right thing. It’s an unfortunate thing, because war is hell and I hate war, and, Charlie, today is the day that I send my first born, my son, my teenage son overseas with his Stryker brigade, 4,000 other wonderful American men and women, to fight for our country, for democracy, for our freedoms.
Charlie, those are freedoms that too many of us just take for granted. I hate war and I want to see war ended. We end war when we see victory, and we do see victory in sight in Iraq.
GIBSON: I take your point about Lincoln’s words, but you went on and said, “There is a plan and it is God’s plan.”
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I love it when an INTERVIEWER nails his INTERVIEWEE on basic logical consistency.
Is anyone as frightened as I am?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntEE9Zy-qQQ