Palin bars reporters

[teggy]

By SARA KUGLER, Associated Press Writer

                     NEW YORK - **Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who has not held a press conference in nearly four weeks of campaigning, initially barred reporters from her first meetings with world leaders Tuesday, but reversed course after they protested.**                                                 

At first, campaign aides told the TV producer, print and news agency reporters in the press pool that followed the Alaska governor that they would not be admitted along with still photographers and a video camera crew taken in to photograph her meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who are here for the United Nations General Assembly this week. She also was to meet later with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
**
These sessions and meetings scheduled for Wednesday are part of the Republican campaign’s effort to give Palin experience in foreign affairs. She has never met a foreign head of state and first traveled outside North America just last year.**

At least two news organizations, including The Associated Press, objected to the exclusion of reporters and were told that the decision was not subject to discussion. Presidents and members of Congress routinely allow reporters to attend photo opportunities along with photographers and the reporters sometimes are able to ask questions during the brief photo sessions, usually held at the beginning of private meetings.

CNN, which was providing the television coverage for news organizations, decided to pull its TV crew from the first meeting, with Karzai, effectively denying Palin the high visibility she had sought. But after the campaign agreed to let CNN’s producer in as well, the CNN camera crew joined the session.
According to the CNN producer who was let into Karzai’s hotel suite with the photographers just before noon, Karzai was talking about his son. Palin was nodding, and asked what his name is. Karzai replied his name was Mirwais and explained that it means light of the house.
The media were escorted out after about 40 seconds.
Campaign aides subsequently announced that reporters would be allowed to accompany photographers into the later sessions with Uribe and Kissinger.
At that point, campaign spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said it was all just a “miscommunication.” Earlier, she had said, “The decision was made for this to be a photo spray with still cameras and video cameras only.”
Palin has been criticized for avoiding taking questions from reporters or submitting to one-on-one interviews. She has had just two major interviews since Republican presidential candidate John McCain chose her as his running mate on Aug. 29.
On Wednesday, McCain and Palin were expected to meet jointly with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko. Palin was then to meet separately with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Palin bars, then admits reporters to UN meetings - Yahoo! News

Well…she certainly possesses the qualities of a Bush-Chenney era republican rule, i.e. Let nothing escape, keep it all hush hush and under the rugs.

And this is just the beginning…imagine what she’ll do when and (God Forbid) if she becomes the VP…

I’ll leave the rest to your speculation

[Faisal]

Re: Palin bars reporters

There is a reason why they are keeping it hush-hush. And the reason is very different than Cheney's. While Cheney keeps it quiet because of his dubious deals, she is kept quiet cz she has no clue what she is doing. But do remember, she can see Russia from her home. How many political leaders can claim that kind of foreign policy experience?

[Lusi]

Re: Palin bars reporters

^^ Lolz... she is just making a mockery of herself.

[ehtasab]

@Faisal

There is a reason why they are keeping it hush-hush. And the reason is very different than Cheney’s. While Cheney keeps it quiet because of his dubious deals, she is kept quiet cz she has no clue what she is doing.

Exactly!

@Faisal

But do remember, she can see Russia from her home. How many political leaders can claim that kind of foreign policy experience?

[Spock]

@Faisal

There is a reason why they are keeping it hush-hush. And the reason is very different than Cheney's. While Cheney keeps it quiet because of his dubious deals, she is kept quiet cz she has no clue what she is doing. But do remember, she can see Russia from her home. How many political leaders can claim that kind of foreign policy experience?

She knows what nukkular weapons are!

[aam_bandha]

She knows what nukkular weapons are!

Then she is presidential material ........ :D

[videshdesh]

Re: Palin bars reporters

I am not sure why not having traveled widely abroad or rubbed shoulders with 2-bit foreign leaders is necessary. Most of these 'leaders' are there simply to get foreign aid from America.

Of course the president has to deal with tough nuts such as Ahmedinejad, Putin etc. McCain is the guy along with his Sec of State that will do that and the VP is only a small role in these things.

How many foreign leaders did W deal with before becoming president? How many did Obama deal with before this campaign?

I think the traditional models of political experience has failed the country and I don't mind trying something like a "I don't have that kind of experience and that is my strength". Palin should simply say that and not try to prove she is experienced in things she is not.

Wouldn't it be nice and refreshing if she just said that? "Look America! I am not a politician and that is why I don't know these dole seekers from abroad"

[Spock]

Re: Palin bars reporters

A VP should be most experienced, as far as handing foreign relations is concerned. you should knwo that vijeydsesh.

[Lusi]

@videshdesh

I am not sure why not having traveled widely abroad or rubbed shoulders with 2-bit foreign leaders is necessary. Most of these 'leaders' are there simply to get foreign aid from America.

Of course the president has to deal with tough nuts such as Ahmedinejad, Putin etc. McCain is the guy along with his Sec of State that will do that and the VP is only a small role in these things.

How many foreign leaders did W deal with before becoming president? How many did Obama deal with before this campaign?

I think the traditional models of political experience has failed the country and I don't mind trying something like a "I don't have that kind of experience and that is my strength". Palin should simply say that and not try to prove she is experienced in things she is not.

Wouldn't it be nice and refreshing if she just said that? "Look America! I am not a politician and that is why I don't know these dole seekers from abroad"

Lolz... Unfortunately, when you enter politics, nomatter how much you hate the dole seekers, you still need to know how to make appropriate conversations with them.

[bebo]

I know she is talk of the town these days and not in a good way but I also think that its not fair to just mock her like that. I mean how many of us have been picked as VP of any country? And No I am not a Republican.

[Lusi]

Re: Palin bars reporters

^^ well if she is willing to tale up that position then she needs to know all that stuff.

[Lusi]

Enjoy!

[bebo]

Dude I am not making this up dude :)
Lusi ur right but my point is that she must have some qualities to be where she is now.. you know. Just a little acknowledgement thats all.

[Lusi]

Re: Palin bars reporters

Yeah, I agree she must have some qualities but she needs to show them somewhere. We can't just vote her on the statements she has been making lately. There needs to be some substance for us before we vote for her, I think that is fair to ask. :)

[underthedome]

Haha, qualities? She’s clearly under qualified and a reckless and dangerous choice. It gives a clear example of why McCains judgement cannot be trusted.
…

By Fareed Zakaria;

Palin Is Ready? Please.

McCain says that he always puts country first. In this important case, that is simply not true.

Will someone please put Sarah Palin out of her agony? Is it too much to ask that she come to realize that she wants, in that wonderful phrase in American politics, “to spend more time with her family”? Having stayed in purdah for weeks, she finally agreed to a third interview. CBS’s Katie Couric questioned her in her trademark sympathetic style. It didn’t help. When asked how living in the state closest to Russia gave her foreign-policy experience, Palin responded thus:

“It’s very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America. Where—where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to—to our state.”

There is, of course, the sheer absurdity of the premise. Two weeks ago I flew to Tokyo, crossing over the North Pole. Does that make me an expert on Santa Claus? (Thanks, Jon Stewart.) But even beyond that, read the rest of her response. “It is from Alaska that we send out those …” What does this mean? This is not an isolated example. Palin has been given a set of talking points by campaign advisers, simple ideological mantras that she repeats and repeats as long as she can. (“We mustn’t blink.”) But if forced off those rehearsed lines, what she has to say is often, quite frankly, gibberish.

Couric asked her a smart question about the proposed $700 billion bailout of the American financial sector. It was designed to see if Palin understood that the problem in this crisis is that credit and liquidity in the financial system has dried up, and that that’s why, in the estimation of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, the government needs to step in to buy up Wall Street’s most toxic liabilities. Here’s the entire exchange:

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries; allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the—it’s got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.

This is nonsense—a vapid emptying out of every catchphrase about economics that came into her head. Some commentators, like CNN’s Campbell Brown, have argued that it’s sexist to keep Sarah Palin under wraps, as if she were a delicate flower who might wilt under the bright lights of the modern media. But the more Palin talks, the more we see that it may not be sexism but common sense that’s causing the McCain campaign to treat her like a time bomb.
Can we now admit the obvious? Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified to be vice president. She is a feisty, charismatic politician who has done some good things in Alaska. But she has never spent a day thinking about any important national or international issue, and this is a hell of a time to start. The next administration is going to face a set of challenges unlike any in recent memory. There is an ongoing military operation in Iraq that still costs $10 billion a month, a war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan that is not going well and is not easily fixed. Iran, Russia and Venezuela present tough strategic challenges.

Domestically, the bailout and reform of the financial industry will take years and hundreds of billions of dollars. Health-care costs, unless curtailed, will bankrupt the federal government. Social Security, immigration, collapsing infrastructure and education are all going to get much worse if they are not handled soon.

And the American government is stretched to the limit. Between the Bush tax cuts, homeland-security needs, Iraq, Afghanistan and the bailout, the budget is looking bleak. Plus, within a few years, the retirement of the baby boomers begins with its massive and rising costs (in the trillions).

Obviously these are very serious challenges and constraints. In these times, for John McCain to have chosen this person to be his running mate is fundamentally irresponsible. McCain says that he always puts country first. In this important case, it is simply not true.

Fareed Zakaria: Palin Is Ready? Please. | Newsweek Voices - Fareed Zakaria | Newsweek.com

[Lusi]

Seems like she is just making it worse for Mccain…

Palin says she’s the ‘new energy’

**(CNN) **– Sarah Palin said she was not taking a jab at Joe Biden’s age or lengthy stint in Washington when recently joking she had been listening to the Delaware senator’s speeches since the second grade.
“Oh no, it’s nothing negative at all,” Palin told Katie Couric Monday in the latest installment of her Monday interview with the CBS anchor. “He’s got a lot of experience and just stating the fact there, that we’ve been hearing his speeches for all these years.”
The original comments came at an Ohio rally Monday, when Palin told the cheering crowd](http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/29/palin-takes-on-biden-directly-as-debate-looms/), “I’m looking forward to meeting [Biden] too, I’ve never met him before — but I’ve been hearing about his senate speeches since I was in, like the second grade.”
Watch: Palin goes after Biden
Some political observers found that comment peculiar, given her own running mate is the oldest man ever to seek a first presidential term. But Palin said she was merely contrasting the differences she sees between herself and Biden.
“He’s got a tremendous amount of experience and, you know, I’m the new energy, the new face, the new ideas and he’s got the experience based on many, many years in the Senate and voters are gonna have a choice there of what it is that they want in these next four years,” she said.
Palin was 8 years-old when Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972. (Biden was 29 at that time)

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time - Blogs from CNN.com

[USResident]

@underthedome

Haha, qualities? She’s clearly under qualified and a reckless and dangerous choice. It gives a clear example of why McCains judgement cannot be trusted.
…

By Fareed Zakaria;

Palin Is Ready? Please.

McCain says that he always puts country first. In this important case, that is simply not true.

Will someone please put Sarah Palin out of her agony? Is it too much to ask that she come to realize that she wants, in that wonderful phrase in American politics, “to spend more time with her family”? Having stayed in purdah for weeks, she finally agreed to a third interview. CBS’s Katie Couric questioned her in her trademark sympathetic style. It didn’t help. When asked how living in the state closest to Russia gave her foreign-policy experience, Palin responded thus:

“It’s very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America. Where—where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to—to our state.”

There is, of course, the sheer absurdity of the premise. Two weeks ago I flew to Tokyo, crossing over the North Pole. Does that make me an expert on Santa Claus? (Thanks, Jon Stewart.) But even beyond that, read the rest of her response. “It is from Alaska that we send out those …” What does this mean? This is not an isolated example. Palin has been given a set of talking points by campaign advisers, simple ideological mantras that she repeats and repeats as long as she can. (“We mustn’t blink.”) But if forced off those rehearsed lines, what she has to say is often, quite frankly, gibberish.

Couric asked her a smart question about the proposed $700 billion bailout of the American financial sector. It was designed to see if Palin understood that the problem in this crisis is that credit and liquidity in the financial system has dried up, and that that’s why, in the estimation of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, the government needs to step in to buy up Wall Street’s most toxic liabilities. Here’s the entire exchange:

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries; allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the—it’s got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.

This is nonsense—a vapid emptying out of every catchphrase about economics that came into her head. Some commentators, like CNN’s Campbell Brown, have argued that it’s sexist to keep Sarah Palin under wraps, as if she were a delicate flower who might wilt under the bright lights of the modern media. But the more Palin talks, the more we see that it may not be sexism but common sense that’s causing the McCain campaign to treat her like a time bomb.
Can we now admit the obvious? Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified to be vice president. She is a feisty, charismatic politician who has done some good things in Alaska. But she has never spent a day thinking about any important national or international issue, and this is a hell of a time to start. The next administration is going to face a set of challenges unlike any in recent memory. There is an ongoing military operation in Iraq that still costs $10 billion a month, a war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan that is not going well and is not easily fixed. Iran, Russia and Venezuela present tough strategic challenges.

Domestically, the bailout and reform of the financial industry will take years and hundreds of billions of dollars. Health-care costs, unless curtailed, will bankrupt the federal government. Social Security, immigration, collapsing infrastructure and education are all going to get much worse if they are not handled soon.

And the American government is stretched to the limit. Between the Bush tax cuts, homeland-security needs, Iraq, Afghanistan and the bailout, the budget is looking bleak. Plus, within a few years, the retirement of the baby boomers begins with its massive and rising costs (in the trillions).

Obviously these are very serious challenges and constraints. In these times, for John McCain to have chosen this person to be his running mate is fundamentally irresponsible. McCain says that he always puts country first. In this important case, it is simply not true.

Fareed Zakaria: Palin Is Ready? Please. | Newsweek Voices - Fareed Zakaria | Newsweek.com

Couldn’t agree more.