Attack of the Russian Fish
The “Alaska is close to Russia” line rears its head once again — but with a twist. Now instead of just being told that Alaska is near Russia, Sarah Palin is said to have dealt with Russia on “permitting issues and with fishing issues dealing with the sea fishing industry there in Alaska.”
I’m sure that was a tense negotiation. I’m not really sure I understand why the GOP is out there with these lame talking points. On the one hand, it’s really quite normal for people with no foreign policy experience to become president — Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, etc. — and on the other hand Palin doesn’t seem to have any noteworthy experience or profile on domestic issues either so it’s hardly as if she’s one fishing permit deal away from being a seasoned veteran of the political scene.
39 Responses to “Attack of the Russian Fish”
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September 6th, 2008 at 9:29 am
“I’m not really sure I understand why the GOP is out there with these lame talking points.”
It’s really quite simple, as long as everyone is talking about Sarah Palin, they’re not talking about failed GOP policies. Palin is serving the purpose of the GOP by becoming the lightening rod that is designed to pull all discussions of anything political in her direction. That leaves McCain and the rest of the guilty parties free to talk about how the MSM is picking on Palin when they’d really rather talk about how their going to change Washington.
September 6th, 2008 at 9:37 am
The right wing strategy is to stick to their story no matter how many new facts come to life. They want to promote Obama as having no experience whatsoever so they disregard his education at Columbia and Harvard, his experience as editor of the Harvard Law Review, his leadership in the community, his constitutional law class, and his years as a state and federal legislator.
Now, Sarah Palin comes to the fore and they double down. The strategy allows for no retreat. In their view Palin does not negate the argument about Obama’s experience, but instead proves the argument. Thus we learn that the University of Idaho is more presidential than Harvard. That being a mayor of a small town is more impressive than being a community organizer in Chicago’s southside. That being a mayor for two years is better experience than being a Senator for three or a legislator for more than a decade.
Never mind drawing these arguments to their logical conclusions. Logic is not the intent. I think one big reason why the media seems so irrational today is that it is largely driven by right wing talking points. Thus, we find the media getting tied like a pretzel reporting these stories and then trying to fit them into some kind of logical framework.
September 6th, 2008 at 9:43 am
I don’t buy that this was some sort of brilliant, machiavellian move by the GOP.
If they wanted to harnass Palin’s star power, they should have used her to replace Ted Stevens. This saves a Senate seat and gives Palin experience so she can be put on the 2012 or 2016 national ticket if they want, assuming she doesn’t embarrass herself in the Senate.
As others have pointed out, if they wanted a female VP for McCain there were tons of alternatives, from Linda Lingle to Elizabeth Dole. If they wanted a Christian fundamentalist he could have chosen Huckabee, and actually there are no shortage of right wing Republican federal legislatures from the Wasilia type exurbs across the country, that is their base after all. Some of these people have conventional family lives and have been in office for more than two years. Its like the Democrats having a hard time finding someone with appeal to city dwellers to put on the ticket. Even Barbara Cubin would have been a better choice.
September 6th, 2008 at 9:44 am
I’m simply shocked, shocked I say, that the Fox News commentators grilled the dude as much as they did re: Palin (in)experience. Ailes must have been sleeping in.
September 6th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Someone, I think on another blog, wrote that the equivalent Democratic VP pick would have been Cynthia McKinney. Actually the equivalent Democratic VP pick would have been Yvette Clarke, who was just elected to Congress last year from Brooklyn, after a campaign in which it was revealed she had lied about her educational credentials. She was a NY city councilmember, as was her mother, but in fact NY city councilmembers have remarkably little power so this is analogous to being Mayor of Wasilia.
I don’t mean to pick on Clarke, the point is putting her on the national ticket now would be highly eccentric, there are just too many other politicians who would be better candidates. The same is true with the Palin pick, there were just too many better alternatives to that selection.
September 6th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Palin’s foreign policy experience is all ‘Triumph of the Will’… We libruls can go take our effete, elitist facts and syllogisms and go perform an anatomically unlikely act.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:05 am
All it takes is one substantive, if pathetic, response to a question to stifle a press that does not follow up questions or situate ideas/facts into a larger context.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:08 am
The Governors of any of the Great Lakes states have more relevant foreign policy experience as they negotiate the water compact with their counterpart Canadian premiers. This deal actually has significant consequences today in the area of development/sprawl and tomorrow as the thirsty West looks for new fresh water sources.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:09 am
It’s early, I overslept, and I am still only on my second cup of coffee, so I haven’t found any exact cites of sites, but I vaguely recall there was a time when Republicans thought governor’s dealing with foreign powers was considered unconstitutional and, when they were dealing with “enemies” of the US, treason.
Something about oil, Venezuela, Connecticut, Chavez.
Just to clear this up, when Easter Elite Liberal governors negotiate economic deals with foreign powers oer oil it’s treason. When governors of frontier ‘real American” states do it over fish, it is strong evidence of deep foreign policy potential.
Not that I expect consistency on this. I am sure there is some really important distinction I am missing.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:29 am
I think it’s just as simple as the GOP wanting to maintain their “Obama is to inexperience in this post 9/11 world to be President” line of attack. If they can play up the importance of foreign policy over domestic policy they think they win. I’m not sure they’re right, but I think it’s their strategy.
September 6th, 2008 at 11:07 am
As lame as this talking point is, I find it much more telling that they come out with it now, days after they rolled out the Palin candidacy.
Are these guys really so incompentent or dense that they did not expect that she would be attacked for her lack of foreign and national security policy expertise? Or did they simply not have the time to pull something out of their butts beforehand?
September 6th, 2008 at 11:59 am
OK, this is utter rubbish.
I spent 10 years working for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in Alaska which is the federal agency responsible for managing commercial fisheries around the US. First thing to understand. When it comes to fisheries management, states manage commercial fisheries in state waters which extend from the shoreline to 3 nautical miles offshore. the Federal government through NMFS manages commercial fisheries in federal waters and the US EEZ (3 to 200 miles offshore).
Now a quick glance at the map will tell you that there is no place where Alaska and Russia are within 3 miles of each other. There is what’s called the “Convention Line” running through the Bering Sea which divides the US and Russian EEZs but this is all federal waters not state waters. And there are lots of joint US-Russian fisheries management initiatives going on that deal with managing “straddling stocks” or stocks of fish that straddle the Convention Line. My bosses at NMFS and commanders of the US Coast Guard in Alaska were always dealing with their Russian counterparts on dozens of issues. And there are various international fisheries conventions and agencies operating in the North Pacific in which the US, Russia, Canada, and Japan are involved. However is is the Federal government that participates in this sort of thing, not the state government of Alaska.
That said, there are numerous international issues in which the State of Alaska is actually involved, however they mostly involve Canada. Alaska and Canada have been involved in a longstanding salmon fishing boundary dispute in the Dixon Entrance (the Southeast maritime border between the Alaska and British Columbia). I’m not sure if that’s been resolved. And there are environmental disputes to do with cross border pollution from mines in British Columbia that pollute water that flows into important salmon fishing rivers in Alaska.
The fact that the McCain folks are throwing nonsense against the wall to do with Russian relations and not even mentioning the actual international relations with which the State of Alaska is actually involved tells me they are just making shit up and no nothing of which they are speaking. In any event, I doubt Gov. Palin has been involved in any of these sorts of diplomatic issues anyway in her short term as governor. These are complex longstanding disputes that are being dealt with by career agency bureaucrat types over time periods that last decades. A flashy governor like Palin probably has nothing to do with this sort of thing.
September 6th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Kent, those facts are elitist liberal east coast cosmopolitan facts.
She may not have discernable policy positions on much of anything, but I remind you that she is a hockey mom. If I were deciding whether to carpool to sports practices with her, this would be critical information.
September 6th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
See, she’s dealing with the Russians on fishing permits. That’s foreign policy experience. And she’s in Alaska when she’s dealing with the Russkies. We’re talking fisheries, wildlife, forestry (all those permits use up a lot of paper, right?), water rights, jobs, the economy. Just lots and lots of foreign and domestic policy stuff wrapped up in those fishing permits. So she’s obviously well-rounded. Obviously.
September 6th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
They’re on the horns of a dilemma. They’d been attacking Obama for inexperience, and then in .02 seconds time, their loyal members became as one in asserting the Palin was their kind of president.
So, it’s either ginning up reasons for Palin to be presidential material or admit to themselves that they’re hypocritical schmucks.
QED.
September 6th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Also BS on the fishing issues — these are treaties handled by the federal government, not state-level negotiations.
September 6th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Given that Canada’s having a federal election too, how about getting MPs from bordering ridings, provincial pols and bureaucrats or getting the Canadians in relevant positions to talk about how Palindrone deals with them? I’m sure they’d be happy to discuss things like the Dixon Entrance dispute. (fnar.)
I think it’s clear: the reason Palindrone’s flaks say ‘Russia’ is so as not to say ‘Canada’. It’s easier to lie about Russians, because the follow-up fact-check is harder to do: anyone know who’s in charge on that side, and speak Russian? If she and her minders were to bullshit about Canada, you can just make a few phone calls and find out.
September 6th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
If Palin is qualified lets’s here her talk now. I’m sure she can handle it, after all she is a pit bull.
Bring her on.
September 6th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
That’s weak sauce.
September 6th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Last night at my poker game, seven guys, six who will never vote for a black man. ‘Sarah’s hot’, ‘He should’ve chose Hillary as VP’, ‘Hillary should have been the nominee’, ‘He gets his funding from overseas’, “He’s going to be assassinated’, ‘Maybe Biden will shoot him’.
No issues, just Rush bs and racism. I was hoping someone would bring up taxes or drilling so I could ask the questions no one can answer, how is drilling going to lower gas prices and how do they make tax cuts permanent? Never got the chance. To bad, I love listening to low info conservatives talk all common sensical about the world.
September 6th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
As others have pointed out, if they wanted a female VP for McCain there were tons of alternatives, from Linda Lingle to Elizabeth Dole.
That’s what I thought at first. But what I’ve realized is that Palin’s a gifted politician, however inexperienced she may be. Whereas Lingle’s a drip and Dole’s old.
September 6th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
On the one hand, it’s really quite normal for people with no foreign policy experience to become president — Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, etc.
But in fairness, they had probably shown some of their foreign policy cards in print, in speeches or in interviews. The point about Palin is that all her experience in government has been in local (non-federal) positions in a podunk, population-empty state (not requiring her to deal with a lot of big players either domestically or internationally), AND instead of being a lawyer, or law professor, or anything like that (i.e., a person who was educated for years about how our public policy works and how our government works) Sarah Palin is just a fishing-shop owner and a sports-caster. But don’t ask the mainstream media– they’ll broadcast lies, and tell you that she was in government during the times that she was actually a sportscaster, to try to make her look better than Barack.
September 6th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Sarah Palin is just a fishing-shop owner and a sports-caster.
That someone like her can become the chief executive officer of a whole state simply reeks of corruption.
September 6th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
One more thing: I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be able to be a governor if you’ve only been a fishing-store owner and a TV-sports-news reader, just that it looks a little funny that in this day and age someone with that kind of experience gets so far in politics. It’s the type of thing that one might conclude indicates that she got far because of loyalty, not because of being a talented, independent mind concerned with public policy. And lo and behold, Palin has turned out to be both very corrupt and very ideological (like loyal goons often are).
September 6th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
If I were you, I’d be careful opening this can of worms…
September 6th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
If there is truth to the allegations that as mayor she demanded resignations as “tests of loyalty” and contemplated book-banning, I would say that the only effect of her proximity to Russia has been a little bit of Uncle Joe Stalin rubbing off on her.
September 6th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Kentucky endured a former Miss America as the wife (with ambitions) of a governor. Former beauty queens never improve over the first impression. Republicans are using the beauty part to get the dumbo vote and are acting under the idea that Little Miss Muffet will be controllable and predictable. We’ve seen how well the predictable has gone, and she didn’t get the nickname “Sarracuda” because she lacked ambitions of her own.
September 6th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Sadly, the worst place in America to develop a foreign policy opinion about Russia is Alaska. It should be disqualifying to claim you know Russia from negotiating about Alaska. Alaska is far from the parts of Russia Russia cares about and is too far from the core of the US to really pose any sort of threat. We just can’t invade Siberia from Alaska even if we wanted to. Thus, Russia and Alaska can be really good peewee hockey buddies or whatever. Where Russia really matters to us is in Europe where the stuff we care about is the stuff Russia cares about and we compete to get it. Just like what Matt said about energy policy, your experience in foreign policy in Alaska makes you less qualified not more.
September 6th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
But in fairness, they [Reagan, Carter, Clinton] had probably shown some of their foreign policy cards in print, in speeches or in interviews.
Yeah, they probably did – once they started running for President. Everyone writes a silly little article for Foreign Affairs, or rather, has one written for them, once they start running for President. But I honestly doubt that Carter or Clinton said much, if anything, about foreign policy before they started running.
September 6th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Sadly, the worst place in America to develop a foreign policy opinion about Russia is Alaska.
So: let’s find out how the Canadians dealt with the Palindrone.
September 6th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
pseudo:
I like “Mooselini” much better than “Palindrone.”
September 7th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Well, maybe the reason you East Coast Elite Liberals don’t get the “Alaska is close to Russia”-talking point is because you refuse to accept that Russia poses an existential threat to the American way of life and our freedoms, and we need a president who is tough on Russia, and who also drills, baby, drills.
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