Palin’s Instincts: Don’t discount Palin’s foreign-policy credentials

bhkad · #1 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Palin’s Instincts
Don’t discount Palin’s foreign-policy credentials.

By Tom Gross

Critics are already trying to damn Sarah Palin for her perceived lack of foreign-policy experience, but what they are not allowing for is something more important — that she has the right basic attitudes and sense of priorities. She understands that aggression has to be resisted and commitments have to be honored.

Certainly there is every sign that she will be better for at least one of America’s closest friends and allies, Israel, than Joe Biden.

It is true that Biden talks of his support for Israel in principle, but the reality is that he has done his utmost to thwart keeping the possibility of a military option open to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. As a result he was even praised recently on the Iranian regime’s official propaganda arm, Press TV.

It is no accident that Biden was dubbed “Tehran’s favorite senator” in an article in the Washington Post last week.

By contrast, the very first reference to foreign policy that Palin made in her acceptance speech after being chosen as John McCain’s vice-presidential candidate Friday was that Iran must be stopped from getting nuclear weapons. She mentioned this even before she mentioned the issues of Iraq and Russia.

Palin has a record for integrity and for getting the job done matched by very few politicians, as shown by her success in tackling the corrupt Republican-party establishment in Alaska, and her highly effective economic program there.

The U.S. and Israel can have every confidence that, like McCain, she is a doer who means what she says — not someone like Joe Biden who may come out with fine sentiments but seems unwilling to get to grips with fundamental problems posed by Iran and Syria.

Tom Gross on Sarah Palin & Foreign Policy on National Review Online

saltwn · #2 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008, 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhkad

Tom Gross on Sarah Palin & Foreign Policy on National Review Online

Yes, but is she pro union? Joe Biden owes the Steel workers union for jump starting his career, and that's one debt I'm glad to see in a politician!
I expect changes in the way of labor reform and worker rights with Joe. Can I get the same commitment from Sarah?

saltwn · #3 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008, 12:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saltwn

Yes, but is she pro union? Joe Biden owes the Steel workers union for jump starting his career, and that's one debt I'm glad to see in a politician!
I expect changes in the way of labor reform and worker rights with Joe. Can I get the same commitment from Sarah?

Cause after all, after the war we still gotta eat.

bhkad · #4 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008, 01:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saltwn

Yes, but is she pro union? Joe Biden owes the Steel workers union for jump starting his career, and that's one debt I'm glad to see in a politician!
I expect changes in the way of labor reform and worker rights with Joe. Can I get the same commitment from Sarah?

Both she and her husband are union members.

She is a proven reformer.

bhkad · #5 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008, 01:53 AM

Quote:

Sarah Palin's reform resume would be remarkable in any political career. She entered politics at 28, winning a seat on the Wasilla city council as an opponent of tax increases. After she defeated Wasilla's three-term incumbent mayor four years later, she swept the mayor's cronies out of the bureaucracy.

In 2003, Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski appointed her to the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Bear in mind that Mr. Murkowski had already served as junior U.S. Senator from Alaska for 22 years. Mr. Murkowski was junior senator for so long because Senator Ted Stevens (who was recently indicted for corruption) had lifetime tenure in the senior post.

Shortly after joining the oil and gas commission, Mrs. Palin commenced an ethics probe of the state's Republican party chairman, Randy Ruedrich, involving conflicts of interest with oil companies. The probe resulted in a $12,000 fine for the party chair.

She crossed party lines in 2004 to join a Democratic representative's ethics complaint over an international trade deal against the Republican Attorney General Gregg Renkes, who had ties to the Murkowski machine. Mr. Renkes resigned.

In late 2005, Mrs. Palin announced her run for Governor before then-Governor Murkowski had announced his intention to stand for re-election. In a three-way primary, Mrs. Palin got 51% to Mr. Murkowski's 19%. At the center of this campaign was a debate over competing proposals to build a natural gas pipeline across Alaska.

These columns wrote about Gov. Murkowski's smashing defeat by Mrs. Palin, noting that his pipeline proposal had been tainted by reports of sweetheart deals with energy companies. The editorial ended: "If Republicans are run out of Congress in November, one big reason will be that, like Mr. Murkowski, they have become far more comfortable running the government than reforming it." That is what happened, as disgusted GOP voters turned away from their own party and ceded control of Congress to the Democrats.

Against the odds, Mrs. Palin won that 2006 election against the state's former Democratic governor Tony Knowles. Most recently, she promoted the effort of her GOP lieutenant governor to unseat U.S. Congressman Don Young, who with Senator Stevens created the earmark that sank the GOP, the notorious "bridge to nowhere."

A Reform Ticket - WSJ.com

Who, on the national political scene, has a record of reform that matches Sarah Palin's record?

saltwn · #6 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008, 02:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhkad

A Reform Ticket - WSJ.com

Who, on the national political scene, has a record of reform that matches Sarah Palin's record?

John McCain has opposed his party in what he deems important to Americans regardless of party. Unfortunately, he was thwarted at times by members of that same party.

bhkad · #7 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008, 02:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saltwn

John McCain has opposed his party in what he deems important to Americans regardless of party. Unfortunately, he was thwarted at times by members of that same party.

Are you a real American?

Sure you are. You don't follow any particular Party line straight across the board. You see things as you see them. You decide based on how you feel and what you think is right. Well, guess what?

So does John McCain.

Assuming that no one is, or should ever be, 100% with any elected official on 100% of the stands he takes, 100% of the time, if anyone agrees with John McCain on more than 50% of the issues, they are a McCain voter.

saltwn · #8 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008, 02:25 AM

The question was

Who, on the national political scene, has a record of reform that matches Sarah Palin's record?

I brought out the fact that JM is also a -maverick.

John McCain has opposed his party in what he deems important to Americans regardless of party. Unfortunately, he was thwarted at times by members of that same party.

And in MO that is a good thing.

Mikeyy · #9 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008, 10:18 AM

How many times are you going to post this national review article? You guys can throw yourselves in to as many contortions as you want trying to support this pick.
This has just become ridiculous. If Obama had picked someone with the lack of serious international credentials as Palin you guys would have nailed him. In fact until McCain went with her you guys were all about "Experience" Now you are trying to convince yourself what a winner she is. I am not susceptible to this kind of self delusion. And I am not willing to hand my country over to her. I don't give a crap if she pees standing up with a baby on her tit while shooting bears for dinner with a bible in her pocket. It ain't happening.

bhkad · #10 (**permalink**) 09-01-2008, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikeyy

How many times are you going to post this national review article? You guys can throw yourselves in to as many contortions as you want trying to support this pick.
This has just become ridiculous. If Obama had picked someone with the lack of serious international credentials as Palin you guys would have nailed him. In fact until McCain went with her you guys were all about "Experience" Now you are trying to convince yourself what a winner she is. I am not susceptible to this kind of self delusion. And I am not willing to hand my country over to her. I don't give a crap if she pees standing up with a baby on her tit while shooting bears for dinner with a bible in her pocket. It ain't happening.

Obama has less experience than Palin. And your denial isn't going to change the fact.

Let me get this straight. They want us to believe that Senator Barack Obama is qualified to be the President of the United States, but Governor Sarah Palin is unqualified to be the Vice President of the United States???

Quote:

In what can only be considered the “hey kettle” comment of the campaign, Senator Obama’s spokesman noted upon hearing about Senator John McCain’s selection of Governor Palin: “Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.” This statement comes from the party that a mere twelve hours before had nominated a former state legislator from the south side of Chicago with zero foreign policy experience for the presidency. That is rich.

The fact of the matter is that both Senator Obama and Governor Palin can claim twelve years of elected office experience since 1992. That fact alone should have dissuaded the democrats from raising experience as an issue. Given that Senator Obama quickly distanced himself from his campaign’s comments indicates that he knows that the last debate he should get engaged in is a debate on experience with the republican vice presidential candidate. After all, the mere existence of the debate is proof of his experience deficit as compared to Senator McCain. Nonetheless, a review of each candidate’s activities over the last sixteen years leads to one, incontrovertible finding: Senator Obama’s experience pales in comparison to Governor Palin’s experience.

Matt Mayer :: Townhall.com :: Obama, Palin, and Their Sixteen Years of Experience

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