Another day, another Palin/McNasty lie (actually, come to think of it, this campaign lies many times a day). This time it's the Governor of the Really Big State That Borders Russia (a country she certainly can NOT see from her house, which is hundreds of miles away):
As you might notice, Palin only cites one discernible foreign interaction under her purview: Trade missions.I spent some time on the Governor's Web site seeking more details about her trade negotiations with Russia. There's a press release about Gov. Palin's meeting with a trade mission from the Yukon, but nothing about Russia anywhere in the archives...
When asked for examples of trade missions with Russia that have taken place under Palin's watch, gubernatorial spokeswoman Kate Morgan refused to answer the question. Morgan said she could not legally discuss any trade missions with me because she's a state employee and I had first heard this claim through the Couric interview, which was part of Palin's campaign for the vice-presidency. When I pointed out that any trade missions that occurred would have been official state business, Morgan again noted that I had learned about them in the context of the campaign. "The law is very stringent," she said, and recommended that I contact the McCain-Palin campaign. Two spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.
As Andrew Sullivan summarizes, what we have here is part of a pattern: 1) "Palin responds to a question she fears reveals something she wants to conceal and lies;" and 2) "a refusal to respond to the press seeking factual information." Palin/McHotHead is like an even more secretive, more ignorant, more incompetent version of Dick/Dubya. I never thought that was possible, but there you have it.
By the way, if Palin can't see Russia from her house and has never even engaged in so much as a trade mission with her neighbor to the (far) west, wouldn't this pretty much destroy any tiny, remaining argument that she might be in the least bit qualified to be Vice President of the United States? And once again, what does the Palin pick say about John McCain's judgment - or complete lack thereof, as the case may be?