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]

Bravo! What fun!

[SpecialReports]

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]

WHAT!? I'm in utter shock!

[BuzzingAlong]

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]

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

[Pete]

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

[bpafree]

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]

Sorry, RAMIREZ, not Ramerez.

[DingoDave]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Well, there goes her foreign policy experience...

[DingoDave]

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]

War is not popular with Americans either.

[cricket]

problem is it is popular with neocons

[curocat]

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]

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

[kadene]

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

[guinness327]

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

[DingoDave]

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]

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

[Liberoservative]

Total BS

[kadene]

Selling more fear, as usual?

[SarahPrice69]

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

[VAforObama]

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]

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]

Todd Palin is not a member of the AIP.

[AllenD]

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]

She meant "seceded"

[Lotus19]

where in the world has the first dude been lately?

[snippetz]

Wow, that does it.