The pundits this morning on TV are talking about the vp debate, which is four short days away, and expressing concern about Palin's ability to debate Biden. And then there's her lack of knowledge.
Sarah Palin was in Philadelphia yesterday and went into a local restaurant to get cheesesteaks with her daughter. A college student asked her questions about foreign policy.
The governor got a more serious interrogation moments later when Temple graduate student Michael Rovito approached her to inquire about Pakistan.
"How about the Pakistan situation?," asked Rovito, who said he was not a Palin supporter. "What's your thoughts about that?"
"In Pakistan?," she asked, looking surprised.
"What's going on over there, like Waziristan?"
"It's working with [Pakistani president] Zardari to make sure that we're all working together to stop the guys from coming in over the border," she told him. "And we'll go from there."
Rovito wasn't finished. "Waziristan is blowing up!," he said.
"Yeah it is," Palin said, "and the economy there is blowing up too."
"So we do cross border, like from Afghanistan to Pakistan you think?," Rovito asked.
"If that's what we have to do stop the terrorists from coming any further in, absolutely, we should," Palin responded, before moving on to greet other voters. via politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com
So let's go to Yahoo questions: Should the US Go Into Pakistan? and see the kinds of answers Americans give to this question:
There is a conflict in Pakistan, known as the Warizistan [sic] War, between the government of Pakistan against al-Qaeda, Taliban, and the Islamic Emirate of Warizistan [sic]. Many, including President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, have said that in the War On Terror, the central front is Pakistan. The Pakistani government would surely appreciate American support. What do you think?
You can read the answers here from ordinary Americans.
A hint: they did better.
UPDATE: Adding the video here from the cheesesteak restaurant. A little humor at the start, after Sarah Palin orders her cheesesteaks, the cashier says "And your name is-?" to which she replies "Sarah."
For further reading: How chaos developed in Pakistan
5 comments:
You should not be saying negative things about Sarah Palin on a Catholic blog. As a Catholic, you must support the pro-life candidates, which are McCain and Palin. For us, it's a one issue campaign.
I disagree that it's a one issue campaign for Catholics. So many issues that intertwine with my beliefs are involved in this election that casting my vote based on one issue would violate my conscience.
I find the one issue argument less than persuasive for a number of reasons. McCain supports stem cell research, although opposing abortion. This substantially weakens any argument stating that he is a pro-life candidate according to a conservative standard. Additionally, the one issue argument ignores the fact that there are American Catholics who are pro choice, many of whom are in politics and understand that it is a mistake to choose one issue as a sole guideline for Catholics to judge an elected official.
See http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004d/102204/102204q.htm
I suggest reading Faithful Citizenship for those who remain anonymous who threw out the line about one issue voting. It talks about that and lays out ways to form conscience on the many issues facing Catholic voters.
I also suggest the book Catholic And American by Thomas Ferguson, which discusses public theology and the writings of Fr. John Murray. It talks about the need to avoid "barbarism" in discussions and to recognize that we live in a religiously pluralistic society, which requires that we live in community according to the dictates of reason. (p 91). The author notes that Catholics need to have courage to raise their voices but also be patient enough to include others' insights and recognize the limits of our own reason in order to achieve civic unity.
A reference to papal writings should be included here. I've read that book and its discussion of the Gelasian Thesis, based on the writings of Pope Gelasius I. May I also direct your readers to Pope Leo XIII's Immortale Dei.
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