Yesterday, glimpses of the McCain/Palin platform emerged at their town-hall meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Oil as Foreign Policy
The fun began with a soft-ball question inviting Palin to defend her foreign policy experience to critics. Doing so without a single reference to policy, nation or "world view" might seem like a tall order, but Palin was game: she fell back instead on a swipe at the opposition, and an emphasis on "readiness," whatever that means.
"I think because I am a Washington outsider that opponents are going to be looking for a whole lot of things that they can criticize and they can kind of beat the candidate here who chose me as his partner to kinda tear down the ticket," Palin responded. "But as for foreign policy you know I think I am prepared and I know that on Jan. 20 if we are so blessed as to be sworn into office as your president and vice-president, certainly we'll be ready. I'll be ready. I have that confidence. I have that readiness and if you want specifics with specific policy or countries go ahead. You can ask you can play stump the candidate if you want to. But we are ready to serve."
That last sentence seemed to acknowledged that readiness alone was insufficient, instead deflecting further questioning with self-defensive humor.
"If you want specifics and specific policy or countries, go ahead, you can ask me. You can even play stump-the-candidate if you want."
I may be quibbling here, but the quote just above better reflects the way she said it than abc's version in my intro. I heard it as a fill-the-gap sentence, a deflecting tactic.
Not reported anywhere that I've found is the fact that at this point she then stepped back, looked down and lowered her mike, precluding further discussion. In any case, given that Palin was implying that playing "stump-the-candidate" is an unfair tactic used only by the opposition, I would have been surprised if the young woman had pursued the point.
[Here’s where it gets scary, and unfortunately undocumented: so far this segment does not seem available on any clips I’ve found, and there is so far no transcript, so this is from memory. ]
McCain jumped in at this point to fill a slightly awkward pause. Reprising Palin’s argument to Charlie Gibson that a little oil industry experience translates into foreign policy expertise, he fused his team’s foreign policy with oil consumption. Sarah Palin knows oil, my friends, and ergo she knows foreign policy. QED. I know she said it before, but I was surprised that McCain apparently subscribes to this belief: no wonder he's no longer mentioning his own experience, as it's clearly irrelevant.
Expect to be in the Middle East for some time, my friends, with a McCain presidency. No surprise there from Bush 44.
Oil as Domestic Policy
Questioned about the benefits of offshore drilling, particularly whether oil would stay in the United States, Palin began with a jaunty, "Offshore is where it’s at."
She then launched a blizzard of words revealing that McCain/Palin had no plan (apart from letting Congress do their job) to make sure that Americans get the oil extracted at great cost and huge risk to the environment in her proposed offshore and ANWR drilling projects.
"It's a matter of Congress allowing these lands to be tapped—the offshore drilling—the allowance given there also for safe, reliable and ethical drilling of these resources," Palin said. "Yes, the oil companies have the leases, the right to develop; they also have a duty to develop when it's economic, when people are hurting, they need to tap those resources and get those sources flowing. That's part of the reform that we're going to usher into D.C. and we did that up in Alaska."
But when asked how she would help keep any new domestic oil produced in the United States, Palin gave a less-than-well-articulated non-answer.
"Oil and coal? Of course, it's a fungible commodity and they don't flag, you know the molecules, where it's going and where it's not. But in the sense of the Congress today, they know that there are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first," Palin said. "So I believe that what Congress is going to do also is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it's Americans that get stuck to holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here. It's got to flow into our domestic markets first."
Passing the buck on "drill here/drill now" details to Congress is pretty disingenuous. McCain/Palin sure act like they've got the power to proceed: if not, why are they talking about it all the time? If you're going to talk recklessly about drilling here & now, you should have at least a stock response to questions about where the oil goes.
These two moments came early in the town hall, somewhere between Palin’s "let’s prove ‘em wrong" (those liberal critics who wonder wehter a mother of five might find it hard to run the country) and the choked up veteran thanking McCain for existing.
For me, these two episodes crystallized the essence (no pun intended) of the McCain/Palin platform:
1.) drill here, drill now, regardless of threats to coastal areas and pristine environmental wilderness areas, and regardless of whether anyone in the US will benefit;
2.) refer all foreign diplomacy and international relations crises to the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission, where Palin cut her foreign policy teeth.
Short version: Sure, the glory days of oil may be over, but we have no other playbook. Vote for US!
We have so few opportunities to hear the unscripted Palin, so I thought these tidbits were worth sharing. Sure McCain's response to health care was humorous (in a painful way)---he helpfully lectured a young, chronically ill woman who is worried about getting health care with pre-conditions about the dangers of obesity---but nothing new. But the oil/policy merger that seemed to take place struck me as rather important.
I’ll post a transcript if one becomes available later on.