Wednesday 27th of November 2024
Home » Blogs » John Richardson's blog

boadicea of the backwoods .....

boadicea of the backwoods .....

Sarah Palin is part of a frontier myth that goes back to the earliest years of the Republic: the beautiful, intrepid frontierswoman, shoulder to shoulder with her man, firing at the redskins circling the wagon and dispatching the roaring grizzly with a steady aim as it towers over her infant's cradle.  

Tie this to the equally potent myth of the ordinary PTA mom taking on the corrupt good ol' boys running City Hall and the allure becomes irresistible. Throw in her manly husband Todd, equally at home on his snowmobile, in his fishing boat or dandling Trig the baby with Down's Syndrome, top off with Palin's Pentecostal faith and 100 per cent 'No' to abortion for any reason, and you can see why McCain thought Palin worth the throw. Her task: to energise the Republican base and - as a working-class woman - to capture some crucial undecided votes in such battlegrounds as Ohio and Pennsylvania.  

Europeans awed that a woman wedded to creationism and a big fan of shooting polar bears from helicopters might be one step away from the Oval Office should remember that the very popular Ronald Reagan – another Western governor inexperienced in international affairs - sat inside the Oval Office for eight years, having publicly affirmed on more than one occasion that he believed the Final Judgement would occur in his life time, probably in Megiddo.  

Sarah Palin, Boadicea Of The backwoods

show pony .....

While the presidential campaign's back and forth was largely suspended on Thursday's anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, ABC World News used the occasion to run extended excerpts of Charles Gibson's exclusive interview with Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin, her first televised interview since coming on the national stage.  

ABC ran 10 minutes of the interview at the top of its broadcast, and another 2 1/2 minutes at the close. 

Reviews of her performance tend to be more negative than positive, with a focus on her labored efforts to deal with foreign policy questions.  

The AP says Palin "struggled with foreign policy, unable to describe President Bush's doctrine of pre-emptive strikes against threatening nations and acknowledging she's never met a foreign head of state."  

The Chicago Tribune also notes Palin "seemed unfamiliar with the 'Bush doctrine,' which says the United States does not need to wait to be attacked before going to war."  

The New York Times says in "choosing Mr. Gibson as Ms. Palin's interlocutor, the campaign was going with a journalist known for having a mild manner but the gravitas to be taken seriously.  

But the interview was hardly gentle." Gibson "expressed exasperation" with Palin, complaining that she "had buried him in 'a blizzard of words.'"  

The Washington Times reports Gibson "also asked her about her travel experience, and she acknowledged that before a recent trip to Kuwait to visit Alaskan National Guard troops she had only visited Mexico and Canada and had not met personally with any foreign leaders." 

Palin Seen As Struggling With Foreign Policy 

and continues to lie ….. 

Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would "defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans." 

The idea that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a view once promoted by Bush administration officials, has since been rejected even by the president himself. But it is widely agreed that militants allied with al-Qaeda have taken root in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion. 

Palin Links Iraq To Sept. 11 In Talk To Troops In Alaska