This is not good.
Palin's foreign policy experience is being Russia's ("formerly the Soviet Union," as she pointed out) neighbor.
McCain has recently referred to Putin as the President of Russia. He hasn't been for some time now. He confuses Sunni and Shi'a regularly. That's a big no-no. That's like getting the north and south mixed up in our civil war. And he spoke of Czeckoslovakia, a country which hasn't existed in over a decade. His latest slip was in regards to Spain. I thought the media was blowing it out of proportion. He has to know they are a close ally. He has to know who their prime minister is. He's running for president. But here he is in an interview, talking about Prime Minister Zapatero as if he's never heard of him, and as if he's Chavez. The interviewer does mistakenly refer to Zapatero as the president, but I don't think that's what threw him off. There's no excuse for this. The 2004 Spanish election was huge because Zapatero ran on the promise of withdrawing from Iraq, against Aznar, who was committed to staying. It was the peak of international backlash against the war. Anyone in or running for office has to know this.
McCain has recently referred to Putin as the President of Russia. He hasn't been for some time now. He confuses Sunni and Shi'a regularly. That's a big no-no. That's like getting the north and south mixed up in our civil war. And he spoke of Czeckoslovakia, a country which hasn't existed in over a decade. His latest slip was in regards to Spain. I thought the media was blowing it out of proportion. He has to know they are a close ally. He has to know who their prime minister is. He's running for president. But here he is in an interview, talking about Prime Minister Zapatero as if he's never heard of him, and as if he's Chavez. The interviewer does mistakenly refer to Zapatero as the president, but I don't think that's what threw him off. There's no excuse for this. The 2004 Spanish election was huge because Zapatero ran on the promise of withdrawing from Iraq, against Aznar, who was committed to staying. It was the peak of international backlash against the war. Anyone in or running for office has to know this.
posted by ryanconnercomedy at 1:21 PM
1 Comments:
Alan says:
Let's debunk this myth that Sarah Palin can tout Alaska being somewhat near Russia as bestowing upon her serious foreign policy experience. To be fair, let's compare her claim to that of President Bush, who cited his Governorship of Texas as a foreign policy credential when he first ran for President in 2000:
- Texas shares a land border with Mexico stretching over 1,000 miles. There are paved highways and several established border checkpoints connecting Texas and Mexico.
- Aside from some uninhabited outlying islands, a narrow tip of mainland Alaska is separated from a narrow tip of mainland Russia by 55 miles, and by water that is difficult to navigate because of Arctic ice.
- Texas has 20 million people. The border states of Mexico that touch Texas include 12 million people.
- Alaska has 750,000 residents. The Russian population living near the sea border numbers 50,000 people. Ethnically, these 50,000 are only loosely Russian - they are more the descendants of isolated indigenous tribes and differ from the Slavs further west.
- There is a massive and visible Mexican/Mexican American/Tejano constituency in Texas that continues to expand and develop. Texas government officials at all levels must always consider this constituency.
- While traces of Russian influence linger in Alaska (Russian surnames, for example) dating from the time Russia first colonized Alaska, these traces are a minute afterthought compared to the ethnic integration of the Texas-Mexico border.
- The Texas-Mexico border is heavily populated. Large border cities include El Paso, Brownsville and Juarez.
- The Alaska-Russia sea border is hundreds of miles away from the population hubs in Alaska, and thousands of miles away from Moscow and other Russian metropolitan areas.
- There are substantial economic ties between Texas and Mexico. Thousands of citizens from both countries live on one side, and go to work in/travel to the other every day.
- Given the sparse population, the economic exchange between Alaska and Russia does not compare.
- The Texas-Mexico border serves as a gateway to Hispanic immigration into the United States; Hispanics account for 13% of the national population.
-NAFTA and Mexican immigration into the U.S. are major Texas-Mexico border issues, with national implications.
- President Bush speaks Spanish
- Governor Palin does not speak Russian.
- Governor Bush visited Mexico and met with his counterparts on the Mexican side.
- Governor Palin has never visited Russia.
Candidate George W. Bush could cite with legitimacy his Governorship of Texas as foreign policy experience. The record shows that he interacted with Mexico and Mexicans on a significant scale. Governor Palin's attempt at staking the same claim fails to meet this established test.
Mexico-Texas relations are a serious issue in both places. In contrast, one can argue for the intimacy between Alaska and Russia only on a contextual technicality.
I'm not dismissing this slim Alaska-Russia proximity as totally inconsequential – during the Cold War, this nearness was a big deal – but what evidence can Palin cite that she's actively engaged Russia, or that Alaskans congregate with Russians beyond a token scale?
Is this really the most significant bullet point on her resume that Palin has to offer? This is like someone mentioning their fast-food job as a teenager while applying for an upper management position with a Fortune 500 company.
Consider this myth debunked. Unless...wait. Forget everything I just said. I'm sure that Vladimir Putin tells the Europeans all the time, "Look, I know the Americans - you can actually see Alaska from Russia."
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