It is a truth universally acknowledged that Americans favor governors over senators when picking their presidents even though the latter tend to have much more foreign policy experience. Nevertheless, it is important for all presidential and vice presidential candidates to affirm their knowledge of and interest in foreign policy to the American public.
Sometimes, valiant efforts to do so backfire. Back in 1999, George W. Bush infamously flunked a quiz on foreign affairs when he was asked to name the leaders of such exotic hot spots as Chechnya and Taiwan. Clearly, such things don't really matter in determining the outcome of elections, but I doubt that any other candidate will concede to answering similarly brazen questions ever again. Pity.
One of the biggest criticisms of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, John McCain's recently-picked running mate, is her lack of foreign policy experience. Steve Doocy, of Fox News, was trying really hard to find something,anything, to refute the claim and came up with: "[T]he other thing about her, she does know about international relations because she is right up there in Alaska right next door to Russia." Who knows, perhaps you do get a better view into Putin's soul from Juneau than Washington.
Republicans are somewhat undercutting their own argument about the importance of foreign policy experience by picking her. However, I doubt that Democrats will gain many points on this one since, ultimately, Barack Obama is still at the top of the ticket and his foreign policy experience is minimal. Obama's best bet is to argue, as he has been doing, that he knows enough to do better than the current mess. It is a very, very low bar to cross but John Kerry, a person infinitely more experienced, failed, and I am not sure if Obama will be any different.
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3 comments:
Great commentary!
Correct me if I am wrong but the person in charge of Foreign Policy would be the President and next to him the Secretary of State, not the VP. Obama's credentials on FP would be competing then with those of John McCain regardless of Palin's resume.
I think the inclusion of Palin was a smart move for the Republicans and it will be welcomed by some independent or center-oriented women voters AND by the bible-belt conservatives who share Palin's values. With Bush's unpopularity, this election had to be framed within the widely shared anti-Bush sentiment. Instead, the Republicans have been so far successful in framing the debate as a contest between "Maverick" McCain ( who has now delivered with his surprise VP pick) and Barack Obama which leads us to the otherwise incomprehensible 50-50 showings in the polls.
Palin's nomination was well received by the Mexican media. As outside observers, editorialists have written about the historic nature of the contest regarding inclusion and minority representation.
Thanks Babs! As for VP's FP powers, I guess it depends on the VP :-) I doubt that Rice has more power than Cheney. The Dems are also making the somewhat morbid argument of the likely possibility of McCain dropping dead mid-term and her becoming president. I think a round-up of what the Mexican papers are saying about Palin would be so interesting.
I guess I was thinking of Al Gore as a VP. What should be truly worrysome is that Palin's foreign policy resume is now being compared to Obama's???!!! It appears as McCain settled once and for all the credentials argument as his opponent is now being pitted not against him but against his number 2 on the ticket. I was one of those people who thought nothing good would come out of the election unless a Democrat won the presidency. I am finding it really hard to dislike McCain even if he is the Republican candidate. Listening to his defense of immigrants rights on one of his TV ads makes me wonder if he and not Obama would be truly a gamechanger in regards to US cooperative relations with Latin America.
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