Palin channels Obama

In regard to the much-ballyhooed Palin interview with Charlie Gibson,  I think it’s important to try to separate the form (altho’ that’s politically important, too) from the content.  Look at what Palin actually  said about foreign policy and war, and tell me if you can find any substantive difference with Obama’s positions.  I can’t.

…The governor [Palin] advocated for the admittance of Georgia and Ukraine into NATO. When Gibson said if under the NATO treaty, the United States would have to go to war if Russia again invaded Georgia, Palin responded: “Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help. “And we’ve got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable,” she told Gibson.
“Let me speak specifically about a credential that I do bring to this table, Charlie, and that’s with the energy independence that I’ve been working on for these years as the governor of this state that produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy, that I worked on as chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, overseeing the oil and gas development in our state to produce more for the United States… but I want you to not lose sight of the fact that energy is a foundation of national security. It’s that important. It’s that significant,” she said.
Palin said that she believed a nuclear Iran presented a threat to “everyone in the world” and that if Israel’s existence was threatened by those weapons it had a right to defend itself.  “We have got to make sure that these weapons of mass destruction, that nuclear weapons are not given to those hands of [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, not that he would use them, but that he would allow terrorists to be able to use them,” she said.  “Well, first, we are friends with Israel and I don’t think that we should second-guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves and for their security.”
When asked whether the United States should be able to invade Pakistan in pursuit of terrorists along the Afghanistan border, Palin demured. “Is that a yes,” asked Gibson. “That you think we have the right to go across the border with or without the approval of the Pakistani government, to go after terrorists who are in the Waziristan area?” Palin responded, saying: “I believe that America has to exercise all options in order to stop the terrorists who are hell bent on destroying America and our allies. We have got to have all options out there on the table.”
“I would never presume to know God’s will or to speak God’s words. But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that’s a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side.”
“Charlie, if there is legitimate and enough intelligence that tells us that a strike is imminent against American people, we have every right to defend our country. In fact, the president has the obligation, the duty to defend…”

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/politics&id=6385821

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