CNN: Sarah Palin Has Never Seen Russia From Alaska

Just when you thought the whole "I can see Russia from Alaska" thing couldn't get any funnier...CNN's Gary Tuchman delivers the goods: it turns out that Sarah Palin has never seen Russia from Alaska.

Tuchman went up to the part of Alaska from which you can actually see Russia, a remote island called Little Diomede located just 2.4 miles from its Russian twin, Big Diomede.

It turns out Gary Tuchman's trip to Little Diomede sets him apart from Sarah Palin -- because she's never actually been there, nor has she set eyes on its neighbor in Russia.

Here's the video of Tuchman's report:

Tuchman says that only 150 people live on Little Diomede, and that the town of Diomede has no streets and no cars. The poverty rate is over 40%, there is no television, and the only practical way to reach it is by helicopter. Anchorage (near Palin's hometown) is 550 miles away.

No Alaskan governor has ever visited Little Diomede, though indicted U.S. Senator Ted Stevens has made the trip. The town's residents barely knew who Palin was, and one of them didn't know she was the VP nominee.

It's going to be fun watching McCain-land spin this one, and it's going to be even more fun watching Tina Fey parody it.

Comments

[Garvagh]

06:28 PM on 10/02/2008

Bravo! What fun!

[SpecialReports]

04:27 PM on 10/02/2008

Its so incomprehe­nsible and vapid that its funny as satire until you realize that Fey is repeating what Palin actually said (especiall­y the parts about the Wall Street bailout, and the continuing farce about Alaska’s proximity to Russia) http://spe­cialreport­.com/satur­day-night-­live-palin­-couric-vi­deo/

[MarceloAbans]

04:10 PM on 10/02/2008

WHAT!? I'm in utter shock!

[BuzzingAlong]

12:57 AM on 10/02/2008

Why are KO and RM the only ones talking about:

Sarah Palin Gets Blessed by the Witch Hunter on Video
http://vot­epalin.wor­dpress.com­/2008/09/2­5/sarah-pa­lin-gets-b­lessed-by-­the-witch-­hunter-on-­video

Sarah Palin, Thomas Muthee and witchcraft
http://uk.­youtube.co­m/watch?v=­S4mC33PZTm­A

After ten thousand hours of Rev. Wright, nothing on the witch doctor?

[GBartrem]

12:09 AM on 10/02/2008

She has visions of Russia... when she eats yellow snow.

[Pete]

01:22 PM on 10/02/2008

Or a dog doo snowcone rubbed into her beady little eyes...

[bpafree]

10:50 PM on 10/01/2008

With a 40% poverty rate, little running water, and a terrible garbage disposal system, I think Little Diomede needs executive leadership - Go Sarah Palin!

[DingoDave]

10:16 PM on 10/01/2008

Sorry, RAMIREZ, not Ramerez.

[DingoDave]

10:14 PM on 10/01/2008

Ramerez,

Palin clearly implied that the average Alaskan citizen could see Russia from LAND in Alaska.
If being able to 'see Russia from land in Alaska', is being able to seeing one tiny Island from another tiny Island in the middle of the Bering Strait, then so be it.
But I'm not buying it.

And American troops will eventually be fighting on their own sooner or later, because no other country wants to keep their troops in either Afghanista­n or Iraq for any longer than is absolutely necessary.
The sooner we concentrat­e on getting the majority of our troops out of Iraq the better.
That would allow us to concentrat­e our forces where they are most needed, which at the moment is clearly Afghanista­n.

If the United States government continues to pursue it's current national and internatio­nal policies, sooner rather than later, you will have no friends left who will be willing to help you when it REALLY counts.

[Ramirez]

10:26 PM on 10/01/2008

Palin said what she said, not what CNN implied she said. Here is her quotation from the Gibson interview:

"They're our next-door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska -- from an island in Alaska." -- Sarah Palin
http://abc­news.go.co­m/Politics­/Vote2008/­Story?id=5­782924&pag­e=2

***

I agree that no country "wants to keep their troops in either Afghanista­n or Iraq for any longer than is absolutely necessary.­" Neither do we.

Every country has to make its own decisions. Every country can withdraw from conflict if they wish.

[mercury613]

03:01 PM on 10/02/2008

The actual question and answer went like this:

----------­----------­----------
GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particular­ly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?

PALIN: They're our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.
----------­----------­----------­-

If she's not implying that she has seen Russia from Alaskan land, then what relevance could that comment possibly have with regard to her foreign policy experience­? Why would she even mention it? She can't possibly think that 150 people on a remote Alaskan island being able to see Russia makes her better informed on foreign policy.

Or maybe she can.

[muypolitico]

11:04 PM on 10/01/2008

Chances are that somebody she trusts told her you could see Russia from Alaska and she took it on faith. Maybe she was told so by the witch hunter. It could also be that she prayed and then heard a voice tell her about it.

Who knows, maybe Putin went for a swim across the Bering Strait, dropped in to say hello and give her insider info on Russia's imperial ambitions.

[kadene]

10:14 PM on 10/01/2008

Well, there goes her foreign policy experience­...

[DingoDave]

09:41 PM on 10/01/2008

Further to my previous post;

Australian troops are also fighting side by side with American troops in Afghanista­n as well as Iraq.

These wars are NOT popular with Australian citizens.

[Ramirez]

10:27 PM on 10/01/2008

War is not popular with Americans either.

[cricket]

10:59 PM on 10/01/2008

problem is it is popular with neocons

[curocat]

09:28 PM on 10/01/2008

Looking at may World Atlas I see Wasilla on the east edge of a marsh lake ( according to the map ) to the west of the lake about 118 mile west there is a mountain range with the elevation of about El 2669 to El 4444, to the south of that there are two mountains elev. 3431.. It would seem that the Mt. range would be an obstructio­n to anything west .. ( Russia ) Further the article said the Russian Isle was about 550 miles away, I measured a little more but we'll use the 550.. The earth Horizon is about `16 miles because of the curvature of the earth, beyond that you can not see unless you're elevated..­. at 550 miles that is 34.4 horizons on a straight visual line... It's been awhile since I used my math, but you students can figure out the Tangent offset is based on the radius of the earth.. Tangent offset if the length from the curve up to a point that meets a straight line from the origin ( wasilla )

[Ramirez]

09:30 PM on 10/01/2008

You wasted a lot of your time. Palin never said she could see Russia from Wasilla.

[kadene]

10:16 PM on 10/01/2008

So, from which vantage point was she implying she could xee it? Especially since she's never set foot on Little Diomede?

[guinness327]

05:43 PM on 10/02/2008

Then maybe McCain should have picked an Alaskan citizen that could.

[DingoDave]

09:20 PM on 10/01/2008

Please, Please America, DON'T elect these clowns to be the leaders of your country!

Neither of them could lie straight in bed, and they both appear to be as dumb as a box of rocks.
If McCain and Palin get elected, you will lose whatever credibilit­y you have left within the internatio­nal community.

Australian­s like me don't know whether to laugh or cry about the fact that they are even being seriously CONSIDERED for the position of president and vice-presi­dent.

Our soldiers are fighting and dying alongside yours in Iraq. Your policies influence the rest of the world. We are begging you, please don't let us down.
Kick these bums to the curb!

[Ramirez]

09:26 PM on 10/01/2008

If Obama is elected your soldiers will be in Iraq on their own.

[Liberoservative]

09:35 PM on 10/01/2008

Total BS

[kadene]

10:13 PM on 10/01/2008

Selling more fear, as usual?

[SarahPrice69]

04:53 PM on 10/02/2008

What happened to Kevin Rudd pulling the Aussie soldiers out of Iraq?

[VAforObama]

08:56 PM on 10/01/2008

Sarahaha hasn't visited this island. It's a place where the poverty rate is 40%, and in her ignorance of its residents-­-Alaskans, her constituen­ts all--she's tried to sell us her foreign policy experience­.

Wow.

I'm sending more money to Obama and making sure I call some more undecideds­. Y

[AllenD]

08:51 PM on 10/01/2008

Since the "First Dude" Todd Palin is a member of an Alaska separatist party, maybe Sarah thinks that Alaska has succeeded from the US, making her a head of state. That could explain her foreign policy credential­s.

[Ramirez]

09:28 PM on 10/01/2008

Todd Palin is not a member of the AIP.

[AllenD]

09:52 PM on 10/01/2008

http://blo­gs.abcnews­.com/polit­icalpunch/­2008/09/an­other-aip-­off.html

Officials of the AIP said Gov. Palin was once a member, but the McCain campaign -- providing what it says is complete voter registrati­on documentat­ion -- says Palin has been according to official records a lifelong Republican­.

A day after making its assertions­, on Tuesday evening, AIP chair Lynette Clark acknowledg­ed she was mistaken and that Gov. Palin was never a member.

(Which to be honest seems more in keeping with the ambitious pol. Republican­s have a much better track record than the AIP.)

Gail Fenumiai, director of the Alaska Division of Elections, tells ABC News that "Gov. Sarah Palin first registered to vote in the state in May 1982 as a Republican­, and she has not changed her party affiliate with the Division of Elections since that time."

But Fenumiai adds that Palin's husband Todd was a member of the AIP from October 1995 through July 2002, except for a few months in 2000. He is currently undeclared­.

[kadene]

10:19 PM on 10/01/2008

She meant "seceded"

[snippetz]

08:43 PM on 10/01/2008

Wow, that does it.