September 18, 2008

Off to shake hands

...with some world leaders and get some foreign policy "experience"!

I kid you not...

John McCain is to take his running mate Sarah Palin to the UN general assembly in New York next week for the annual gathering of foreign leaders, to address her chronic shortage of foreign policy experience.

The only way I know to respond to that is with humor (or at least an attempt at it):

Fret not, Palin supporters! She says she'll be ready to lead by January 20th and in the meantime, she's taking a crash course in foreign policy & diplomacy by going to the UN to meet some foreign leaders (remember, she has not met any by her own admission*). Henceforth, like she can see Russia from Alaska and hence understand the Russia-Georgia crisis, she can now understand the issues in the Middle East because she'll shake hands with the UN ambassador from Turkey. Oh ...wait...what? Turkey is not the Middle East? Spain is not in Latin America?^ Whatchamacallit...duffingit! (^ See this video and read these two articles - 1, 2 - if you do not know what I mean.)

Oh well...go away now, you liberal "nattering nuggets"# and suffer through her generalities, even when you specifically asked for policy specifics.


* Here's what she said:

"Have you ever met a foreign head of state?" Gibson asked Palin."I have not," Palin said, "and I think 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."

Fact check: Palin, who obtained her first passport two years ago, would in fact be the first vice president in 32 years who hadn't met a foreign head of state, if she were elected.

Turns out the last fellow to not meet any foreign leaders before he was elected VP was Spiro Agnew, the disgraced Vice-President to Nixon! Incidentally, he was also the last governor nominated for VP (in 1968) since Palin's nomination.

Guess why 'disgraced'? This from wikipedia:

He is noted for his quick rise in politics - going in six years from County Executive to Vice President of the United States.

Agnew's nomination was supported by many conservatives within the Republican Party and by Nixon. But a small band of delegates started shouting "Spiro Who?" and tried to place George W. Romney's name in nomination. Nixon's wishes prevailed, and Agnew went from his first election as County Executive to Vice President in six years — one of the fastest rises in U.S. political history.

Aah ...George Romney sidelined then for an unknown state governer who had risen rapidly from a small county office to governer; Mitt Romney this time. And both were surprisingly pushed into the VP nomination against the better judgment of many of their party members!

hmm... more similarities with Palin, including corruption and fraud at the state level. Like Palin's little problem in Alaska :)

During his fifth year as Vice President, in the late summer of 1973, Agnew was under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Baltimore, Maryland, on charges of extortion, tax fraud, bribery, and conspiracy. In October, he was formally charged with having accepted bribes totaling more than $100,000, while holding office as Baltimore County Executive, governor of Maryland, and Vice President of the United States. On October 10, Agnew was allowed to plead no contest to a single charge that he had failed to report $29,500 of income received in 1967, with the condition that he resign the office of Vice President. Agnew is to date the only Vice President in U.S. history to resign because of criminal charges.

I just hope the similarities end here. Remember, Nixon-Agnew won in 1968! And Nixon actually won a second term in a landslide in 1972, by when Spiro Agnew was having dreams of running for President himself. Until his corrupt practices back in his home state caught up with him.

Note: I am not finding these similarities. Others including Dailykos.com and Mydd.com have written about these similarities right since her nomination.

--
# Spiro is famous for his harsh words for the "liberal media" including the lovely alliterative "nattering nabobs of negativism" (which was actually written by William Safire, the NYT columnist who was a speechwriter for Nixon & Agnew) and also “pusillanimous pussyfooters,” and “hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history” and "an effete corps of impudent snobs" .

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