Palin Offers Tough Talk

video here

Alert the media. Governor Palin is hawkish on foreign policy. Alert dense Democrats: the average voter eats it up, especially when it’s coming from someone who is about to again surprise the audience who’s waiting for her to fall on her face. Hasn’t happened so far and it didn’t happen tonight either.

One segment in particular is getting a lot of attention in the Gibson
– Palin interview. Many are taking issue with Sarah Palin’s carefully
crafted talking points on the Georgia – Russia conflict. Some on our side are going off half shrill. Here’s the excerpt:

GIBSON: Would you favor putting Georgia and Ukraine in NATO? PALIN: Ukraine, definitely, yes. Yes, and Georgia. GIBSON: Because Putin has said he would not tolerate NATO incursion into the Caucasus. PALIN: Well, you know, the Rose Revolution, the Orange Revolution, those actions have showed us that those democratic nations, I believe, deserve to be in NATO. Putin thinks otherwise. Obviously, he thinks otherwise, but… GIBSON: And under the NATO treaty, wouldn’t we then have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia? PALIN: Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help. But NATO, I think, should include Ukraine, definitely, at this point and I think that we need to — especially with new leadership coming in on January 20, being sworn on, on either ticket, we have got to make sure that we strengthen our allies, our ties with each one of those NATO members.

But before everyone goes off on Governor Palin– never mind, too late for that, it’s already happened.

So, let’s back up.

Check out Barack
Obama’s statement on the crisis. Then consider
Joe Biden, who joined with Dick Lugar to craft the following statement on
the situation now boiling between Georgia and Russia. Biden drew out the importance of NATO, while calling out Europe, who Biden says needs to “get off the fence.”

Both Ukraine and Georgia have established themselves as Western-looking democracies and are worthy candidates for NATO membership Unfortunately, some NATO members balked in the face of strong Russian opposition, and because NATO works by consensus, both countries’ bids failed. … Moscow employed its entire arsenal of military, diplomatic and economic tools to undercut support for the two former Soviet states and to intimidate NATO leaders. Russian President Vladimir Putin went so far as to threaten Ukraine with a nuclear attack while standing beside Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko at a press conference weeks before the Bucharest summit. The more immediate challenge is the case of tiny Georgia (population 4.6 million). The Kremlin says NATO membership is so unacceptable it is prepared to subvert the territorial integrity of the one-time Soviet Republic in the Caucasus. Moscow is undertaking legal and diplomatic steps that could lead to recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two separatist Georgian territories.

Palin’s patter on national security is obviously thin and she didn’t seem to know or understand the Bush Doctrine. Compared to Biden, she’s just not in the same league, but
who is? Unfortunately, that won’t be her hurdle. But what she’s saying is that honoring our responsibility as a NATO ally we would be obliged to come to the aid of any country under serious threat, as would others in NATO. Can anyone prove she’s wrong? … .. I didn’t think so. Right, we don’t have the troops, which Putin
knows all too well. However, that’s not the issue in this interview.

Sounds to me like we’re at the water’s edge on this one.

Review? Lowered expectations going in. Quick study. Holds her own. Point to Palin.

Deadly outcome for Democrats. Palin just might be the gift that keeps on giving… to the Republicans.