Palin, in a bubble, meets her first world leaders

maddezmom

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Tue Sep-23-08 03:42 PM
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Palin, in a bubble, meets her first world leaders

Edited on Tue Sep-23-08 03:46 PM by maddezmom

Source: AP

NEW YORK - Sarah Palin met her first world leaders Tuesday.

It was a tightly controlled crash course on foreign policy for the Republican vice presidential candidate, the mayor-turned-governor who has been outside North America just once.

Palin sat down with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. The conversation was private, the pictures public, meant to pad her resume for voters concerned about her lack of experience in world affairs.

The self-described "hockey mom" also asked former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for insights on Georgia, and she'll see more leaders Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings.

It was shuttle diplomacy, New York-style. At several points, Palin's motorcade got stuck in traffic and New Yorkers, unimpressed with the flashing lights, sirens and police officers in her group, simply walked between the vehicles to get across the street. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, three hours behind Palin in seeing Karzai, found herself overshadowed for a day as she made her own rounds.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080923/ap_on_el_pr/palin_leaders_9

Palin: Now Afraid to Be in the Same ROOM as a Reporter

Remember what I wrote last week about the McCain campaign pulling back the curtain and finally allowing the press and the public to interact, however fleetingly, with its long-sequestered vice-presidential nominee?

Um, nevermind.

Knowing that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is currently visiting Manhattan, Father of Stumper asked this morning whether I'd be "hanging out" with the Mooseburger Queen of Wasilla. As we speak, she's over at the United Nations General Assembly shindig meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in an attempt to establish international insta-cred. I told him no. The sessions are closed to the public, I said, and I'm not planning on joining her press pool.

~snip~

Ultimately, Team McCain allowed CNN to cover the spray for all of 29 seconds--but only after the cable channel refused to send its cameras. Without CNN in the room, none of the networks would've received video footage, so the McCain campaign had to relent. Otherwise, it would've faced a total TV blackout. As for Holmes, she was out of luck--as was the print pool relying on her report.

I get that Team McCain wants to "protect" Palin from the press. But this is getting ridiculous. Last week, I interpreted Palin's off-the-cuff decision as she was entering a Cleveland diner to respond to a CBS reporter's request for comment on the AIG bailout--her first answer to an impromptu question from the national press since joining the ticket last month--as a sign that McCain's running mate might be opening up. Instead, it seems to have marked the start of a new effort to stifle ALL editorial coverage of the candidate. As the CBS embed reports today, a Palin staffer told him that questions “weren’t allowed” after he had the temerity to approach Palin in Cleveland, and the campaign chose not to notify the pool reporter assigned to be in Palin's motorcade when the candidate departed Sunday for a scheduled stop at an Orlando ice-cream parlor--meaning that "there was no editorial presence at the event."

more:http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/09/23/palin-now-afraid-to-be-in-the-same-room-as-a-reporter.aspx