Palin and Her Lack of Interest

You wouldn't expect McCain's VP pick would be as experienced in foreign policy as Joe Biden, who is a walking encyclopedia of long-winded expertise and opinion. Heck, maybe a VP pick doesn't need to have any foreign policy experience - generally a problem for governors.

But Palin doesn't even seem to be interested in Foreign Policy. After four long years of the Iraq War, she still doesn't think she's paid enough attention to have opinions. She's just "been too focused on her state." As if Alaskans weren't also being asked to serve and sacrifice.

Salon writes:

A clip search doesn't show any substantive comments from Palin about Iraq during her short term as governor of Alaska, in 2007 or 2008, or at any point prior to that. That includes instances when she was specifically asked about the war.

In an interview with Alaska Business Monthly shortly after she took office in 2007, Palin was asked about the upcoming surge. She said she hadn't thought about it. "I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq," she said. "I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place; I want assurances that we are doing all we can to keep our troops safe."

Seven months into the surge, she still either had not formed any opinion on the surge or the war or just wasn't sharing. "I'm not here to judge the idea of withdrawing, or the timeline," she said in a teleconference interview with reporters during a July 2007 visit with Alaska National Guard troops stationed in Kuwait. "I'm not going to judge even the surge. I'm here to find out what Alaskans need of me as their governor."

You would think that a candidate for VP, someone just one 72-year-old, cancer-ridden heartbeat from the Presidency, would at least have a record of being interested in foreign policy. Instead, she actively avoids it.