Posted on 02/27/2011 4:06:56 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
America's political theater is spewing snickers and sarcasm over Sarah Palin's proposed trip to India next month amid uncertainty over whether she will run for the White House in 2012.
While state governors bidding for Presidency typically make overseas trips to shore up their foreign policy credentials, Palin, ex-governor of Alaska and former vice-presidential candidate, is famously shy of foreign travel.
She got a passport only in 2006, and before signing up with John McCain for the Republican ticket in 2008, she had travelled overseas only once, to visit US troops in the Middle East.
Since then, she has gone abroad twice, travelling to Hong Kong in 2009 for a conference where she spoke about US-China relations, and then going to Haiti on an earthquake relief mission.
But in a huge leap of faith and distance, Palin is scheduled to be in New Delhi on March 19 for the annual India Today conclave, where she will give a speech on "My Vision for America". Political pundits are divided on whether that stab at policy articulation by the controversial politician widely perceived as having a limited worldview is meant to signal a Presidential run in 2012.
Some analysts think the trip actually indicates Palin will not be running. In a blog post headlined "Palin going for the outsourced vote?," Andrew Cline, a leader writer for a conservative New Hampshire paper, said he has a hard time believing that "someone who makes a trip to India a higher priority than a trip to New Hampshire is a serious presidential candidate."
New Hampshire is a key state in the Presidential stakes because it traditionally holds the first primary in the race to the White House. Palin has not visited New Hampshire after her 2008 vice-presidential bid. "Chalk this up as one more bit of evidence that she's probably not running," Cline wrote.
While some arch conservatives are dismayed that Palin is not making a call on a White House run, the former governor is being pilloried for her India sortie, with comedians and cartoonists having a field day.
A Huffington Post cartoon by Sunil Adam, editor of the 'Indian-American', wondered why Palin is going to India, with one character replying, "Probably because she can"t see it from her house in Alaska." Palin had been mocked by pundits for declaring during her 2008 run that Alaska's proximity to Russia gave her foreign policy experience.
Gov. Palin also traveled to Kosovo in May/June of ‘09 and visited our wounded troops in Germany on her return home.
I think Mr. Cline is a little butt hurt here. Mrs. Palin does things her way at her own time.
These same folks had nothing to say about Romney making overseas trips. I’m sure a lot of us here have been overseas does that make us more Presidential? These “standards” the media promote are ridiculous. The first thing I’d see as a dis-qualifier for a GOP Pres nomination is having worked with liberal Democrats to implement the plan that is considered the model for Obamacare in their state. I know that’s being unfair when one looks good in a suit and is an independently wealthy good looking Rhino.
Geez! It’s a stupid annual event put on by a bunch of publishers.
The keynote speaker last year was Salman Rushdie.
Did they think he was making a run for President?
Was the Indian Prime Minister, Regional governors, Pakistani officials and Egypt’s Mohamed ElBaradei there last year?
http://conclave.intoday.in/conclave/conclave2011.php
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So if someone offered you a couple of hundred thousand dollars, a first class ticket or private jet, a 5 star hotel room and a chance to see India, just for making a half-hour or hour speech, you’d turn them down, is that right?
Yeah, obviously they didn’t ask Romney,Huckabee,Barbour, Mitch,Thune,Gingrich to speak before the Conclave conference because they just wanted to give $$$ to lesser qualified Palin instead....yeah, right! Bawahahaha!
What a joke!
poor uninformed asshole......She had the National Guard and our national Security Nuclear arms sites in Alaska and is far better versed on international situations than the criminal in the white house now, or should I be honest and call it the grey house now as all honor and status has be removed.....
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