Sarah Palin obtained a passport for the first time only 1.5 years ago? ?

Question

I just heard that Sarah Palin obtained her very first passport only last year. I heard this on NPR - a pretty reputable news source. Has anyone else heard this?

Answer 1

Well, she's been really busy cleaning up Alaska with her economic reforms, work on energy issues, balancing a large budget and gaining respect from all parties, not to mention thumbing her nose at outrageous congressional proposals aimed at her state.  I'm sure she will have time to do some traveling if foreign policy experience is a concern.  After all, Barack is running for president and just started learning a few weeks ago.  While Barack was doing nothing in the Senate for a couple of years, Palin was saving the future of a state.

Answer 2

I heard, don't remember where from, that she got a passport in 2007 so she could go to Germany and Kuwait. (and also a trip to Ireland)

Answer 3

thats all you got?

Answer 4

If you can't conjure up a very reputable link, I do not believe you.  Aren't you the same one who stated that NPR said her wiki page changed a day before the announcement and that too was a lie?  The desperation that some of you folks demonstrate is unreal!

Answer 5

It's probably true but what is the role of the VP? Do they negotiate with foreign countries? The VP is simply an adviser and a figurehead. Palin will probably assist with domestic issues while McCain is handling the crazy mullahs in the Middle East. She'll have her hands full with illegal immigration, welfare reform and a host of other issues. In that role, I like her better than Obama, Biden, Kennedy or any other donkey. Look at her record in Alaska!! It's outstanding and unblemished which is more than I can say for Obama or Biden.

Answer 6

That's not bad considering that Obama has had 47 years to learn the value of a baby's life.... especially since he was the only Dem to vote against the Born Alive bill.

Palin also hasn't learned that if she was like Reid and Pelosi, her kids could earn Millions of dollars lobbying Congress and writing subprime mortgages.

But, then again, Joe Biden got a ton of money from MBNA executives to support the bankruptcy bill instead of supporting the poor, the elderly, and single moms.

Answer 7

Unbelievable! What in God's name is WRONG with McCain?

Yes, I did hear that, too.

Answer 8

I was interested in this question too. Not because it should be a qualification to become president, but because it's a bit of an eyebrow raise. It would be the same if she didn't have a drivers license or a credit card. It's just a bit weird.

Answer 9

Thank you so much for asking this question about Sarah Palin.  I just heard about this this morning on television and thought I must have  misheard something.  So I got on the Internet to check.  I am stunned.  A couple years ago, I was in the UK and someone there mentioned that a British television show had reported the startling statistic about the incredibly low percentage of U.S. citizens with passports.  It is really embarrassing the lack of interest in the world of our citizenry.  This lack of perspective on the part of our nation leads to ultra-nationalism and arrogance, which is turn heightens anti-American sentiment throughout the world at a time when we need other nations of the world to join us as partners.  And is also causing us to fall further and further behind as an economic and political world power.  I guess Ms. Palin, like George W. Bush, falls into this "typical American" category -- no intellectual curiosity, no world perspective --  but it is surely at our peril.  When is this nation going to wake up to the fact that we need as leaders individuals who are exceptional, not typical?  People with a broad range of experiences that can fully understand and appreciate the complexities of the world, and even of our very diverse nation.  From what I've learned about Ms. Palin, it seems she's spent her entire life in small, almost all-white towns in the West.  How can she possibly fully appreciate the challenges of our urban areas, the cultural differences between the North and the South, the East and the West, and the issues and challenges within our many ethnic communities, much less understand political and cultural world issues and diplomacy?

For those who try to equate Ms. Palin's experience with Mr. Obama's, besides the points made above, somehow it gets lost in these discussions that Mr. Obama is a Constitutional scholar, who was a professor of Constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for 12 years.  (Sadly, in recent years Bush-supporting conservatives seem not to care anymore about the Constitution.)  Much gets made of the fact that Mr. Obama has not held an executive position, while Ms. Palin has been governor of the 3rd least populous state in the nation (population less than that of Charlotte, NC), albeit for only a year and a half.  Consider this: neither Abraham Lincoln nor JFK were governors prior to becoming president; George W. Bush was.  People really need to read up on who Mr. Obama is.  He is a very accomplished individual who has been extremely busy throughout his young life, having lived in several regions of our nation (the Northeast, the Midwest, the West), as well as throughout the world; having written books, proven himself as a leader and an organizer; having worked as an attorney, as president of the Harvard Law Review, as a professor of the Constitution, as a state legislator, as a U.S. senator, serving on a variety of committees and writing and/or sponsoring countless bills, etc.  And he began his career as an exceptional student, holding degrees from the prestigious Columbia University and Harvard University, with no family connections to get him in (Ms. Palin holds only a bachelors degree from the middle-of-the-road University of Idaho).  Above all, Barack Obama is a man with a tremendous gift for inspiring, which cannot be matched by anyone I can think of.  To try to equate Ms. Palin's background with Mr. Obama's broad range of experiences, education, work and abilities is laughable.  Ms. Palin is not Hillary Clinton by any stretch of the imagination.  Nor does she come anywhere close to being the most qualified Republican candidate for Vice President (particularly given the heightened stakes: a 72 year-old presidential candidate who's already had several bouts with cancer, and whose own father and grandfather never made it past their mid 70s).  This is the most obvious case of voter pandering I can remember, and anyone who suggests otherwise is delusional.  These are serious times and the stakes are extremely high.  I wish our nation could muster the wisdom to treat it as such.

Answer 10

And this is a big deal......why?????

Let me make it perfectly clear (though it should be ridiculously obvious)....Palin was selected because she has a history of bi-partisanship and being tough on government and corporate corruption...not foreign policy.

John McCain has decades of foreign policy experience. If foreign policy experience were such a big deal to democrats, then why did Obama get the nomination????

Answer 11

So what?   I would bet there are PLENTY of people who live in the USA who do not have a passport and have never ventured out of the country.... does THAT make them unacceptable as candidates for ANYTHING?  Not hardly..  I don't care either way who wins this next election because either candidate will s***w up just like every other elected official we've ever had .  But I truly feel that people who are not doing more research on ANY candidate should not try to get so "KNITPICKY" ...  someone will find fault with ANY person who becomes president OR vice president... it never fails... problem is, you all start to believe your own hype....

Answer 12

NPR is not a reputable news source.  Otherwise, more people would listen to it.

Even if that's true, what does it matter?  Obama's only used his passport once or twice.

Answer 13

Okay fine, so let's send Palin on a vacation to the middle east and europe so that she will have equivalent "foreign policy" experience as Obama?  

Answer 14

that makes that upcoming V.P. debate all the more priceless.  Biden will be talking about places that he has visited and Palin has only seen on a map.  He will be talking about global leaders that he has personally met, and whose names she has only read about.....  Republicans have to be very, very worried.

Answer 15

I was wondering about that myself. To all of you who think this means nothing: clearly, you've not spent enough time outside this country. The PRIMARY criticism that people in other countries have of America, and Americans, is the astonishing degree to which we as a nation are uninformed about and uninterested in the rest of the world.

Sarah Palin is the typical American in this view. Remember that the VP spends a lot of time schmoozing foreign dignitaries. No doubt they'll be thrilled to learn that the only time she's left our borders was to hang out on an American base in Kuwait. (I've spent weeks of my life on those bases, it's not very much like being in a foreign country. Everyone speaks English, and the vast majority of people you meet are Americans.)

This is yet another facet of just how deeply unserious McCain behaved in his first major Presidential decision. It IS an "absolute disgrace."

Answer 16

You're right, she only got her passport in 2007.  It may not be a big deal for the average american not to have a passport, but i'd like the person who can become president in a heartbeat to be a little above average.  World travel is a pretty important way to learn about how the world works....I'm sorry if that offends some of you who haven't had the opportunity to do so, but it's true.  Just like I couldn't claim to understand how a factory or a mill works by reading books about it...I'd actually have to go to one and observe.  

We are in the middle of 2 wars and in the midst of having to deal with world superpowers like China, Russia, etc.  And there are still issues looming in Cuba and Venezuela, which has huge implications for our status as world leaders.  Not to mention the dangers of N. Korea, Iran, Syria, etc.  The VP isn't a figurehead anymore...the Bush administration conferred a LOT more power on that office than ever before. She's admitted to knowing little about foreign policy (particularly Iraq)....this is a dangerous choice for the country.

Answer 17

I guess she doesn't get out much.  

Probably got one so they'd let her back into the US after visiting Canada.

Answer 18

so..i'm 41 and i don't have one

you mean boorish redneck.  not borish.

don't make me correct you again.

Answer 19

I've seen some weird answers here.  Apparently from people who don't realize that the Vice President becomes the President if something happens to the incumbent.    Or maybe they don't realize that a President is the Commander in Chief, and responsible for Foreign Policy.

How can anybody expect a person who received her first passport a year and a half ago to be in charge of the foreign policy of the most powerful nation in the world?  Dealing with NATO, the United Nations, the Russia and Georgia conflict, Israel and the arabs, Iran's nuclear threat, two wars, terrorists from abroad...?

McCain has decided to play Russian Roulette, not only with his campaign, but with his country.  He is elderly and has obviously lost his mind.  But have the Republicans also lost theirs?

Answer 20

It's reported on Politico too:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/080...

One heartbeat away *shudder*

Answer 21

That's of no consequence.

Only about 15% of Americans hold passports.

Most of those are business travelers or people who are originally from other countries or have relatives in other countries.

The number has recently increased as Americans have needed them to return to the US from cruises or short trips to Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean which did not require passports in the past.

Few Americans travel internationally except for the wealthy or certain groups of people who like to visit foreign destinations.

The favorite vacation destinations for Americans continue to be within the continental US.  Few ever visit Hawaii or Alaska.

Statistically it's far, far fewer than you think.

Obama has NEVER been to Central or South American.

The US does TWICE as much trade with Latin America as it does with Europe.

Why did he waste so much time and effort on the Paris Hilton Magical Mystery Tour?

Don't trust NPR. Their news is Never Particularly Relevant.

It is never put into proper context. Only used to mislead.

Answer 22

I've been a fan of John McCain for many years, but please stop kidding yourselves people. This pick is the last in a long line of pathetically political decisions that show his judgement in not suitable for the presidency. Sarah Palin seems like a perfectly bright, charming person who may very well be equipped to run the free world. The problem is, he DIDN"T EVEN KNOW HER! "Country First" is not operating from an entirely political standpoint by selcting a running mate you met ONE TIME and asking us to believe she is trluy the person best suited for the job. How can we trust her if he can't realistically vouch for her? McCain's iresponsibility is not only the opposite of country first, it is nothing short of unpatriotic. Come on folks, let's think for ourselves rather than for partisanship.

Answer 23

No, I haven't heard that.  I didn't realize that there was an expectation or appropriate time in one's life to obtain a passport before one gets criticized for not having one (or getting it too late).  At what point would you and/or NPR have found it acceptable for her to get one?  I suppose she applied when she went overseas to visit our troops in Kuwait.