Sarah Palin is a governor, which means she has as much foreign policy experience as Kathleen Sebelius, Tim Kaine, Tim Pawlenty, and Mike Huckabee. In other words: not much. As the New York Times‘s Alessandra Stanley gleefully observes with meticulous detail (shockingly in a way never given to any of Joe Biden’s many gaffes) Palin was tongue-tied when Katie Couric why Alaska’s proximity to Russia gave her foreign policy experience. This credential of sorts was first burnished by Cindy McCain in an August 31 interview and then mentioned again by John McCain in a September 3 interview with ABC’s Charles Gibson:
Including Russian trade missions seem a bit like resume-padding, no? She needs to turn it back around into a question about Obama’s foreign policy experience. What she needs to do Newsweek Newsweek If Obama had picked a governor like Sebelius or Kaine there’s no doubt that (1929 stock market) bush doctrine TEXT I consider that on national security the best experience you’re going to have is executive experience, the kind of experience that a Ronald Reagan had, the kind of experience that a Franklin Roosevelt had. And that, that, that’s where I think she’s, well, at least considerably more experienced than Barack Obama, who really has never had to make decisions that are, that are accountable. So I don’t know. I think this experience thing kind of argues in favor of the McCain-Palin ticket, but probably you get to see that on, you know, based on the seat you’re sitting in. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/is-palin-qualified-obamas-not-saying/#more-6450 Q. Sarah Palin claimed in an interview that Alaska’s proximity to Russia somehow enhances her foreign policy experience and credentials. Do you agree with that? A. “I will let the American people make a judgment on that.”
