Some Foreign Policy Advice For Sarah Palin

Governors almost never come to the national stage with much foreign policy experience. But rarely has a vice presidential nominee generated so much concern abroad (or at home) as Sarah Palin, who only got her passport last year and probably couldn't finger Botswana on a map. Contrary to my liberal friends (and other bloggers on this site), I like Palin. Her views on evolution are abhorrent, sure. But she comes off as a regular person, not a seasoned pol, and I like that. But she needs to bone up on her foreign policy chops. Here is some advice.

Call for Comprehensive Plans. Americans and the media are dumb. When pressed on a complicated foreign policy issue (Should the U.S. recognize the sovereignty of Pakistan and suspend its commando raids of South Waziristan?), just say that the issue is complex, and there are no easy answers but you have a comprehensive plan that will resolve the issue and restore American greatness. Next question?

Correctly pronounce difficult-to-pronounce places. You can score a few foreign policy points and silence your critics by pronouncing Qatar "cutter" and Chechnya "chech-NYA". Do what Bush does: Include the phonetic spellings of foreign-sounding words and names in all your speeches.

Geography and Osmosis Are Not Correlated. Your being the governor of Alaska, sorry to say, does not make you a Kremlinologist. You have to understand Russia to understand foreign policy. By that I mean, make sure you know the history of U.S.-Russian relations, dating back to John Reed (and while you're at it, read his book, too).

Don't Try to be Thatcherite. Conservative women tend to be coolish, overly stern, and Jeane Kirkpatrick-like. Angela Merkel has charmed both at home and abroad by being herself, not trying to project this iron-woman image.

Read A Few Books. I know that time on the campaign trail is not exactly in abundance but you should read at least a few books or important articles on world affairs. Try George Kennan's "X article" in Foreign Affairs on containment or Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations." If you can make it through a whole book, don't make it Natan Sharansky's "The Case for Democracy."

Know Your Current Middle East Events. If you have to get one region right, learn about the Middle East. Unlike your running mate, know which states are majority Sunni and which are majority Shiite. Don't make the same mistake I made my first day on the job: I confused Syrian for Assyrian. There's a difference. Look it up.

Grab Some Good Foreign Policy Experts on the Right. Contrary to popular opinion, they do exist. Have a sit-down with my old boss, Richard Haass, of the Council on Foreign Relations. Or chat up Colin Powell, Brent Scowcroft, or Andrew Bacevich. I hear you are being briefed by Randy Scheunemann -- take everything he says, reverse it, and your worldview will be just fine.

Comments

[insanityfollows]

Good post. It'll never happen. The far right has no interest in knowledge or making decisions from the basis of good knowledge that may not be popular. We need help. We need Obama.

[ToonMoene]

Note that Persia and Europe have been at war for the last 2500 years.

There's no use blaming it all on Islam (which only came up 1400 years ago).

[KoolBreez]

"You have to understand Russia to understand foreign policy" : Didn't work for Condi..

Extensively travel while you are still young- oops too late for that..

Learn that Europe and the middle east are not in your jurisdiction. Stop trying to govern them.

[Otaku1031]

Come on, people. Most of what I've been reading/hearing about Palin makes it appear that she is running for POTUS. I'm very aware that a Palin Presidency is possible (in the event that McCain gets elected) due to McCain's failing health, but the issues lately have centered around her qualifications to be President, not the VP. Again, I understand the reasons for these concerns, but if Obama keeps comparing HIS qualifications to hers, its apples and oranges. Obama is not running for VP, Biden is, and he needs to get in Palin's face with HIS record and disqualfy her. It would be no contest, and it needs to happen before the debate so all can see just how poorly equipped Palin is for the VP job. We all know why she was picked, and as long as we continue to try to show how unqualified she is for the Presidency, we are ignoring McCain. Obama needs to show how McCain is NOT going lead us out of the disaster that is the Bush legacy - he'll simply permit it to continue because he has NO new policies at all. Obama needs to compare his qualifications against McCain's, not against a governor whose administration reads like a script for a damn soap opera. Again, Palin is NOT running for President, McCain IS, and we can't afford to forget that. Let's stay on point, folks; McCain is the guy that Obama needs to be concerned about.

[travispete1]

A simple trip to Epcot Center in Orlando will probably increase her foreign policy experience eightfold.

[unitron]

Perhaps she could spend a weekend at Busch Gardens and make herself an expert on Europe. :-)

[lboucher]

Obama lost his gas in March and Hillary kicked his butt. He never won a major state from March on- ward. Hillary should have been the Dem. candidate.

He is running on fumes, no money, no energy and no message.

The latest Fox News/Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Ohio, finds John McCain out in front of Barack Obama 51% to 44%

[pashupat]

Have you been in a cave since March? To address just one point - Obama made $66 million in August.
As far as this blog is concerned, if she has to read this to sound like she knows what she's talking about, she definitely should not be VP!

[MajorKong]

If you have to take foreign policy advice from a Republican at least make it Richard Lugar.

[JonG345]

Everyone just needs to deal with the situation at hand, which means attacking them where it hurts, the truth, and the issues, and tying George Bush to republicans and McCain as much as tying McCain and Palin to Bush. See, one of the big things that failed wasn't exactly Bush, but republican philosophy. Everyone needs to watch Bill Clinton's speech in Denver a few more times.

[RENREVARD]

And do not bash Obama on his views on Iraq until YOU GO THERE.You have not talked or had a one on one with the General in charge of Iraq.Like McCain was bashing Obama for not visiting Iraq.So unless you have gone to Iraq keep your opinions to your self.

[INDmind]

Or she could just do a world wide tour in one week!

[freshnotbitter]

Sarah,

here's my reading list:

"Guns of August"

2 pages of Gibbons per day (Volume II which starts in 476 after the fall of Rome) - of course I am refering to "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

If you like you can skip forward to Gibbons' section on Mohamet (622 or so) and soak in a few pages for extra credit. Gibbons finished his work in 1776 but don't worry, his work is much more modern than anything you will read today because he was so much closer to the truth. You'll notice that nothing has changed since he wrote the book anyway. At least nothing that matters. Don't bother reading about the Roman Empire before 476 which has no relevance whatsoever to our situation today.

"A Distant Mirror" Tuchman's work on the hundred year's war (so it should be relevant to the hundred years' war McCain has in mind, right? Well, yeah, kinda). The work is somewhat misunderstood because the title does not actually refer to "time in 1350 reflecting our times". Rather, what you see in the mirror of the title is a distant person who is "us", just under different circumstances, thereby revealing what a human being really is, today as much as yesterday, stripped of his modern day security.


Enjoy.

[Mike789]

For some unknown reason (ahem), it continually occurs to me that Palin will get the script of the questions prior to every interview with MSM. It's simply going to be rigged.

[INDmind]

Actually the word rigged now has a new name...it's called the Denver Roll Call!

[lilrebelgirl 22]

Vote for McCain/Palin 08

[1will]

Donate and Vote.

[FullChat]

Palin as a VP is like having a team going to the Super Bowl team - who suddenly has an injured quarterback - calling up the quarterback of the 50th best high school football team to take his place.

Works in Hollywood. Hopefully, Putin and the Iranians got their copies of the script...

[SusanK1951]

I wonder if she is reading the Huffington Post lol.

[1will]

Doubtful. It's the same 2 or 3 hundred of us that read the Huffpost. Even most Democrats have never heard of the site.