On foreign policy and moose

On Thursday’s Morning Edition, NPR aired items about McCain and Palin in Michigan and Obama in Nevada (pronounce the first “a” as in “dad”, not as in “pa”, if you want to wow the Nevadans). In the Michigan segment was this bit, from a “town hall meeting” in Grand Rapids:

NPR’s David Greene: One question at last night’s town hall came from Kimberly King:

Kimberly King: Governor Palin, there has been quite a bit of discussion about your perceived lack of foreign policy experience. I want to give you your chance: If you could please respond to that criticism and give us specific skills that you think you have to bring to the White House to rebut that or mitigate that concern.

Sarah Palin: Well, I think because I’m a Washington outsider, that, uh, that opponents are going to be looking for a whole lot of things that they can criticize, and they can kind of try to beat the candidate, here, who chose me as his partner to, um, kind of tear down the ticket. But as for foreign policy, you know, I think that I am prepared, and I know that on January 20th if we are so blessed as to be sworn into office as your president and vice president, certainly we’ll be ready, I’ll be ready, I have that confidence, I have that readiness. And if you want specifics, with specific policy or countries, go ahead and, and you can ask me, you can, you can play Stump the Candidate if you want to. Um. But we are ready to serve.

Right. In other words, “No, Kimberly, nothing specific. Sorry. But I have that readiness, bless me, I do.”

Ugh.

Suppose you were, say, having your kitchen re-done from the ground up, and someone wanted to do the design and contracting for you. Only, she’d never designed a kitchen before, never contracted with builders, and wasn’t really even aware of what sorts of cabinets and countertops were available, except for that time she flipped through a catalogue while she waited at the Home Depot. But, she assures you, being an outsider is actually a benefit, and if she’s blessed with your business she has that confidence and readiness.

Ya think you’d hire her?

I certainly wouldn’t.

But let’s not forget that George H.W. Bush got elected with Dan “Potatoe” Quayle at his side. Anything can happen. So let’s be clear about why the country and the world will be better off if we’re “blessed” with Barack Obama in the White House, and make sure that that gets at least as much press.

 

While we’re at it: I’m getting irritated by how the media, even NPR, are going on about the “moose hunter” and “hockey mom” stuff, just parroting advertising copy from the McCain campaign. It’s not news and it’s not relevant, and by continuing to cover it, even in an attempt to add humour, they’re giving credibility to it and acting as sock puppets for the campaign. (On the other hand, NPR also added this stand-up routine of Woody Allen’s, from 1960. Funny, if a bit dated.)

 

Oh, and also while we’re here, we should give link love to The Palin Truth Squad. Lovely satire up front with real, important information behind it; click forthwith.