FAR-RIGHT HEARTS KARZAI?…. In response to questioning, President Obama told George Stephanopoulos he doesn’t care what former half-term Gov. Sarah Palin thinks about nuclear proliferation, since she doesn’t really know anything about the subject. Palin, of course, responded today.
Palin fired back this afternoon in a speech before the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, suggesting Obama didn’t have much experience with nuclear policy.
Palin mocked “all of the vast nuclear experience [Obama] acquired as a community organizer, as a part time senator and a full time candidate.”
She also swiped at the Obama administration for disrespecting Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
“They treated the Afghan President Hamid Karzai poorly and acted surprised when he responded in kind,” she said.
Now, when it comes to experience on nuclear issues, Palin is not only confused about the policy, she’s also confused about Obama. As a senator, some of Obama’s most impressive work came when he teamed with Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) to work on counter-proliferation. And as president, Obama personally helped negotiate the most important arms treaty in a generation. Palin, meanwhile, thinks Vladimir Putin once flew over her house. What we’re seeing is the difference between a child and an adult.
But I’m also curious about that other point. Palin thinks the president treated Karzai “poorly,” and then implicitly defended Afghan president’s recent antagonism towards the U.S. Oddly, Liz Cheney appeared at the same conference last night, and also chastised Obama for not being friendlier to Karzai.
Since when do right-wing Republicans side with Karzai over the U.S. leadership? I don’t mean that as snark; I genuinely didn’t realize that the new line in far-right circles was to defend Karzai, and I’m not at all sure how they arrived at this point.
Keep in mind, Karzai has come under bipartisan fire in the U.S. lately, first after accusing the West of interfering in Afghanistan’s recent election, and then again when Karzai threatened to join forces with the Taliban. Obama, meanwhile, has been urging the Afghan administration to crack down on the corruption and inefficiencies that plague Karzai’s government.
Palin and Cheney are on Karzai’s side? Why?
Have we reached the point at which anyone who draws a rebuke from the Obama White House is necessarily going to get support from right-wing Republicans? It’s almost as if we’ve entered a new era of the Blame-America-First crowd, with far-right clowns like Palin and Cheney taking the lead.
