Palin tries to defend qualifications in interview

[CptSternn]

http://tinyurl.com/4rwulf

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska - John McCain running mate Sarah Palin sought Thursday to defend her qualifications but struggled with foreign policy, unable to describe President Bush's doctrine of pre-emptive strikes against threatening nations and acknowledging she's never met a foreign head of state.

The Republican vice presidential nominee told Charles Gibson of ABC News in her first televised interview since being named to the GOP ticket that "I'm ready" to be president if called upon. However, she sidestepped on whether she had the national security credentials needed to be commander in chief.

Palin, 44, has been Alaska's governor for less than two years and before that was a small-town mayor. She was McCain's surprise selection for the No. 2 slot on the ticket, raising questions about her readiness to serve in the White House, particularly during wartime.

McCain has defended her qualifications, citing her command of the Alaska National Guard and Alaska's proximity to Russia.

Asked whether those were sufficient credentials, Palin said: "It is about reform of government and it's about putting government back on the side of the people, and that has much to do with foreign policy and national security issues." She said she brings expertise in making the country energy independent as a former chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

She acknowledged that national security encompasses more than energy but said: "I want you to not lose sight of the fact that energy is a foundation of national security."

Palin said other than a trip to visit soldiers in Kuwait and Germany last year — "a trip of a lifetime" that "changed my life" — her only other foreign travel was to Mexico and Canada. She also said she had never met a head of state and added: "If you go back in history and if you ask that question of many vice presidents, they may have the same answer that I just gave you."

Pressed about what insights into recent Russian actions she gained by living in Alaska, Palin answered: "They're our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."

Foreign policy questions dominated the first of three interviews Palin was giving Gibson over two days.

In the interview Thursday, Palin:

_Appeared unsure of the Bush doctrine — essentially that the United States must help spread democracy to stop terrorism and that the nation will act pre-emptively to stop potential foes.

Asked whether she agreed with that, Palin said: "In what respect, Charlie?" Gibson pressed her for an interpretation of it. She said: "His world view." That prompted Gibson to say "no, the Bush doctrine, enunciated September 2002, before the Iraq war" and describe it to her.

"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," Palin said, though added "there have been mistakes made."

Pressed repeatedly on whether the United States could attack terrorist hideouts in Pakistan without the country's permission, she said: "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."

_Said nuclear weapons in Iran's hands are dangerous, and said "we've got to put the pressure on Iran." Asked three times what her position would be if Israel felt threatened enough to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, Palin repeatedly said the United States shouldn't "second guess" Israel's steps to secure itself.

_Called for Georgia and the Ukraine to be included in NATO, a treaty that requires the U.S. to defend them militarily. She also said Russia's attack into Georgia last month was "unprovoked." Asked to clarify that she'd support going to war over Georgia, she said: "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," she said.

_Said she "didn't hesitate" when McCain asked her to be his running mate. "I answered him 'yes' because I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can't blink, you have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we're on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can't blink. So I didn't blink then even when asked to run as his running mate."

_Contradicted an assertion she made at her former church that "our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God." Asked whether she thought the United States was fighting a holy war, she said she meant to convey that she agreed with Abraham Lincoln's quote that "I would never presume to know God's will or to speak God's words."

Later, in the second interview, Palin said she broke from McCain on climate change and oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. McCain has said humans have caused climate change and the federal government shouldn't permit drilling in the federally protected wildlife reserve.

Palin, however, said: "I believe that man's activities certainly can be contributing to the issue of global warming, climate change. ... Regardless though of the reason for climate change, whether it's entirely, wholly caused by man's activities or is part of the cyclical nature of our planet — the warming and the cooling trends — regardless of that, John McCain and I agree that we gotta do something about it."

On ANWR, she said: "We'll agree to disagree but I'm gonna keep pushing that and I think eventually we're all gonna come together on that one."

[CptSternn]

So lets recap -

She is pro-war, and pro-preemptive stirkes. She is for supporting israel, no matter what the cost, she thinks the Iraq war is a mission from God, and she has no idea about the current bush policies, but somehow seems to echo them line per line.

You have to love she also claims Russia 'invaded' Georgia 'unprovoked', which is the exact opposite of what happened.

Makes you wonder if she really is that stupid as to not have seen the news or if she is trying to, like the bush admin, change history by continually lying about the facts.

Considering she in this interview claimed she didn't say things she already said (in the past week even), things that are on video, things she now claims she never said, well, that right there says she is another bush admin waiting to take cheneys place.

[Chumley]

We All Need Some Light-Transatlantic. Watch it. I'm not aloud to link it, but it sums up everything Sarah Palin doesn't get.

[a morbid curiosity]

Oh dear. I hate Sarah Palin.

[A Simple Poet]

I actually like the person of Sarah Palin. I just think the Republicans screwed her over by just throwing her into the Vice Presidency without giving her the few years to polish her star, like Obama had after his DNC speech in 2004. If she'd had this time to develop her own view as opposed to regurgitating McCain-speak, she could have been a formidable candidate. If McCain loses, Palin needs to leverage her considerable cult following against her colleagues by increasing her status in her party to the end that she transcends the gender issue and escapes the image of a moose hunting hockey mom.

The Republicans made a grave error and an outrageous disservice to Governor Palin by sexuallizing her with hopes to court women because of her gender and men who might see her as a MILF. If I were Sarah Barracuda, I think I'd be righteously pissed by this. I'll have more respect for her if it ever comes out that she is secretly pissed by this tactic.

All this being said, I disagree with her politics and think that she would be a disaster as a vice president in this current election cycle.

[a morbid curiosity]

^ I can agree with this, though I never saw anything about her to like. Surely if she was "secretly pissed" by this tactic, she would be intelligent enough to find a way around it.
People like her seem to publicly mock feminism.

[Solumina]

I love the fact that she has decided that her teen daughter's pregnancy is a "gift from god" and that teen pregnancies are a good thing because anything else would leave her continuing support for abstinence only education up for criticism.

[Saya]

Apparently the town of Wasilla was the last town in Alaska to actually charge r@pe victims for their r@pe kits.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j...DN-wQD934SK0G0

Basically she's claiming she was unaware of that, but the state asked the police force to stop before passing state legislature to ban it. It makes me mad, either she knew about it and didn't care or didn't know and that makes her very incompetent.