Crash class for Palin with world leaders
Starts 1st day of meetings at the UN
NEW YORK - Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin threw herself into a crash course in diplomacy at the United Nations yesterday, beginning her first of two days of meetings with foreign leaders, including Afghan president Hamid Karzai, Colombian president Álvaro Uribe, Pakistani president Ali Asif Zardari, and Iraqi president Jalal Talabani.
The meetings with Palin, who had never met a foreign head of state before and who traveled outside North America for the first time last year, were designed to bolster her foreign policy credentials and introduce her to close US allies with whom she would work if she became vice president.
But the carefully orchestrated visits also highlighted the degree to which John McCain's presidential campaign will go to shield the first-term Alaska governor from the press. Until CNN threatened to withdraw its pool camera crew, Palin's aides initially banned reporters, who are traditionally allowed to briefly view private diplomatic meetings that are being photographed, and are sometimes allowed to ask questions.
Palin - who was escorted by Randy Scheunemann, John McCain's top foreign policy adviser, and Steve Biegun, a former National Security Council member - met with Karzai yesterday for about a half hour. He said later at the Asia Society: "I found her quite a capable woman. She asked the right questions on Afghanistan. She was concerned and she said how can she help, so I'm very pleased with that meeting."
Reporters were allowed in for less than a minute, and heard the self-proclaimed "hockey mom" of five discussing Karzai's only child, who was born in January 2007.
"What is his name?" Palin asked, according to a pool report.
Karzai replied that the boy's name is Mirwais, which means "The Light of the House."
"Oh, nice," Palin responded.
Walter Russell Mead, a historian with the Council on Foreign Relations, said the meetings were likely to be more like courtesy calls than serious talks, given the uncertainty about whether McCain will win the presidency, and how much influence Palin would have over foreign policy in his administration. "We're not going to be talking about deep negotiations here," he said.
Biegun told reporters that Palin realizes that she is not yet in the White House: "Rather than make specific policy prescriptions, she was largely listening, having an exchange of views and also very interested in forming a relationship with people she met with today."
After meeting with Karzai, during which aides said she discussed the need for more troops in Afghanistan, Palin traveled by motorcade to the Colombian mission to the UN, where she met with Uribe and talked about a proposed US-Colombian Free Trade Agreement, which McCain and Palin support but Obama opposes, according to Biegun.
Then Palin met with former secretary of state Henry Kissinger at his consulting firm's offices for what was perhaps her most substantive meeting of the day. Palin talked for more than an hour with Kissinger, who tutored President Bush during his first White House campaign and has kept in close contact with him through his presidency.
Kissinger and Palin spoke about Russia, Iran, and China, Biegun said. In recent weeks, Kissinger has stated that he believes the United States should meet with Iranian leaders without preconditions - the position that has been taken by Democratic nominee Barack Obama and that McCain has repeatedly ridiculed.
Kissinger walked Palin to the doorway of his building and watched her motorcade drive away, but declined to answer reporters' questions about what advice he had given.
Today, Palin is set to meet with Talabani, Zardari, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, and Bono, the rock star who has been an activist on Africa issues. With McCain, she is also slated to meet the leaders of Georgia and Ukraine. Asked what Zardari knew about Palin, an aide to Zardari said: "Everybody knows about her. . . . She is a much-talked-about woman these days."
The aide said the Pakistani leader was also expecting to meet Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden in New York. But Biden, who has been on the Senate foreign relations committee since 1973, did not travel to the UN yesterday. Biden has already spoken with or met all the foreign leaders on Palin's schedule, including Zardari in a meeting in February in Islamabad.
Palin's visit caused a stir in New York. Passersby trying to catch a glimpse formed small crowds outside the offices where she held her meetings. Outside Kissinger's building on Park Avenue, Jackie Taliaferro, a 34-year-old executive head-hunter who wore an "Obama Rocks" button, said she did not believe Palin's whirlwind meetings would give her enough foreign policy experience to qualify her to be next in line for the presidency.
"She's going to talk to Dr. Kissinger to pick his brain on foreign policy," Taliaferro said. "Good luck."
But Lynne Timmes, a 26-year-old songwriter in an "I love you Sarah" T-shirt, said Palin just needed a little "brushup" on foreign policy.
When Palin finally emerged from the meeting, Timmes yelled, "I love you, Sarah." But her compliment was drowned out by another woman protesting Palin, who shouted: "Women's rights will stand." 