Palin to receive crash course in world affairs

After openly admitting she had never met a world leader, Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin is about to meet a handful. With world leaders gathering in New York for the convening of the United Nations, the McCain campaign is springing to introduce Palin to the world outside of Alaska.

She will meet with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Afghan president Hamid Karzai, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zadari, among others.

What will they talk about? The importance of shooting wildlife from planes? Mooseburgers? No one really knows, but to keep the conversation going and stave off a sudden accidental armed conflict, she will never be more than armslength from McCain policy advisers Steve Beigun and Randy Scheunemann.

The trip can be expected to be about as substantive and authentic as a Democrat donning hunting gear (an PR stunt Obama thankfully has found unnecessary). The end results will be about the same too, wandering in silent confusion, hoping the cameras capture the moment without anything or anyone getting shot.

In a related issue, the Washington Post today examined one of the few world issues Palin is on the record talking about — global warming. Despite the fact that she has admitted her state is changing more rapidly than any other in the Union as a result of global warming, she does not agree with the near scientific consensus that human activity is at least partially guilty for phenomenon.

Furthermore, in an inexplicable move, she fought the federal government’s move to place polar bears on the endangered species list, despite the fact her state’s fish and wildlife department predicts that all of Alaska’s polar bears will be gone by mid-century.

Shocking, but frankly not really. What is interesting about all of these things is that these positions actually make McCain look more sane. He supports the protection of endangered species and long pushed for capping carbon emissions to fight global warming.