Palin the Pied Piper of the Far Right

Stop the presses – scratch that – don’t stop the press, they are the only ones vetting the (possible) next vice president of the United States, and possible leader of the free world. Let us have a look at what we have found out so far.

Palin said, “Not thanks to the bridge to nowhere.” Well, not exactly - she said yes and then said no – to the bridge when she knew it was not going anywhere. However, she did accept the earmarked money.

She has commanded troops. As Governor of Alaska, she has command of the Alaskan National Guard but she did not actually issue any orders.

Speaking of the Alaskan National Guard, she visited her troops in Iraq during her two-year tenure as Governor. Well again, not exactly – she was at the border crossing between Kuwait and Iraq Kuwait when she saw her troops - not really in Iraq.

Her foreign policy experience amounts to two trips abroad - the first to Kuwait/Iraq and the second to Ireland. Her plane stopped off in Ireland for re-fueling, not exactly a state visit. On those grounds, Boris Yeltsin, the old Soviet leader, paid a state visit in 1994 when he failed to exit his plane at Shannon Airport to meet with Ireland’s leaders, leaving them waiting on the tarmac. According to official Russian reports, he was too tired to walk down the planes steps. Un-officially, he was too drunk.

Sarah Palin, who might someday be a heartbeat away from the presidency and who just got a passport only two years ago, is ready to lead the most powerful country in the world against all enemies. I believe you have to understand your enemies and friends before you can take up the mantle of leadership, and that requires visiting friend and foe, where they live. You cannot look them up in the local Wasilla library. Besides, look what happens when you do assume to know people without actually seeing how or where they live. You get the US in 2008 under George Bush, another world traveler before he became president of the Untied States.