Sarah Palin: Ahmadinejad's "evil" words

We might not get to see Obama and McCain debate tonight as planned, but we can see a bit more of the elusive GOP VP, Sarah Palin, who is calling Ahmadinejad "evil." (If you want to be precise, she denounced "the evil that he speaks.")

In the second part of her interview with Palin on CBS, Katie Couric delves into the VP's previous statement that the US should never "second guess" Israel when it comes to its national security, whether the US should talk to Syria, and what lessons she had learned from watching the Bush administration's push for democracy in the Middle East, including the stinging election of Hamas in 2006.

It's not clear how well Palin understood the question or the issue, because she very quickly changed the topic to Ahmadinejad, "the evil that he speaks," and what a wake up call he should be for Americans who might be lulled back into a pre-9/11 reverie.

This question is not in the transcript on the CBS News page, so here's what Palin was asked, and what she said.

Couric: What happens if the goal of democracy, Gov. Palin, doesn’t produce the desired outcome? For example, in Gaza, the U.S. pushed hard for elections – and Hamas won.”

Palin: Yeah, well, especially in that region though, we have got to protect those, and support those, who do seek democracy and do seek protections for the people who live there.  And we’re seeing today, in the last couple of days here in New York, a speaker, a president of Iran, Ahmadinejad, who would come over on our soil and express such disdain for one of our closest allies and friends, Israel, and we’re hearing the evil that he speaks. And if hearing him doesn’t allow Americans to commit more solidly to protect the friends and allies we need, especially there in the Middle East, then nothing will. If Americans are not waking up to what it is that he represents, then nothing is going to wake us up and we will be lulled into some false sense of security that perhaps Americans were part of before 9/11."

In an echo of Bush's plain-talking "Bring' em on" lines, Palin boils the Middle East down into black-and-white terms.

"It is obvious to me who the good guys are in this one and who the bad guys are," says Palin. "The bad guys are the ones who say Israel is a stinking corpse and should be wiped off the face of the earth. That's not a good guy who is saying that. Now, one who would seek to protect the good guys in this, the leaders of Israel and her friends, her allies, including the United States, in my world, those are the good guys."

Here is the full video:

Comments

[C Bettencourt]

I am sorry to anyone who takes offense to my comment, but wake up people. Here is a woman who could shortly become our president if McCain is elected, and yet so many are still too ignorant to vote otherwise. Think for our nation for once, not just your own selfishness.

[Stateside]

Kind of off-topic but...
Tzipi Livni and Sarah Palin - compare and contrast.

Tzipi seems way for qualified for the position and she does a lot less talking about her personal life/family.

[E Brown]

Katie Couric -as an AMERICAN woman-should have pursued answers to the questions. The lady did not directly answer any of the questions. The whole interview was just an opportunity for her to deliver campaign platitudes. I am ashamed for Katie and consequently no longer hold her in high regard.

[JP Hari]

Good luck ! You have a difficult choise

[Edie]

Anyone see the debate last night? McCain wasn't much more coherent on the subject of Iran than Palin. He can't even pronounce Ahmedinejad and when he finally spit it out, he did it in disgust as if it was such a stupid, 'foreign sounding' name anyway.

What was his response to the question 'What is your opinion about the Iranian treat to U.S. national security?'

McCain's first words were that when Iran gets their nuclear weapons, they would pose an existential threat to Israel. Besides everything that could be discussed on the validity of so many things in this one statement, I thought it was interesting that when asked about U.S. national security Israel's was mentioned first and foremost.

[todd]

for all the deserved mocking of Palin's idiocy, I thought it was golden that Couric began the interview by describing how they were in front of the "augusta" United Nations building... sigh.

[Usama]

Palin seems to reflect the kind of dumbed down myopia pervasive amongst a large swathe of American society.

The way I see it, the ritewing segment has propagated its dumb down version for decades and it has grown to reach the White House. Limbaugh Hannity Beck and others are regular visitors to the White House to coordinate the rhetoric and recieve their talking points.
Ritewing preachers and their organizations all carry the same ideas.

So Palin's her dumbed down, antagonizing polemic comments are par for the American political course. She even expresses fealty to Israel as if it were a colony or a 51st state of America. Her rhetoric is the continuation of Bush's. She doesn't offer advancing leadership or forward insight and vision, just more of the same.

[Usama]

The most sensitive information of these countries is maintained with encryption software which makes it nearly impossible for infiltration or sabotage. Unless you have a backdoor encryption code.

http://www.counterpunch.org/ketcham09272008.html

Apparently, America is increasingly dependent on foreign encryption software. And that software is written in Israel first and foremost. In fact Israel dominates American encryption industry.

Palin refuses to 2nd guess Israel, but Israel is busy spying on America and American sensitive data in violation of American law and trade agreements.
Israel is 2nd to China in industrial espionage of American firms.

What would Palin do about this?

Not 2nd guess Israel?

It seems ritewingers are aiming to sell out America for the sake of Israel in preparation of the return of Jesus.

[Linda]

To Todd

Couric was using a term to describe the building they were in front of....august
(and an uh slight pause between that and the next word)

–adjective 1. inspiring reverence or admiration; of supreme dignity or grandeur; majestic: an august performance of a religious drama.
2. venerable; eminent: an august personage.

What exactly did you think she was saying? Did you think she was saying a city name or what? just wondering.