Turns Out Many VP Nominees Have Met With Foreign Leaders

By: Ryan Corsaro
Topics: Sarah Palin

(CBS)

From CBS News' Ryan Corsaro:

While Sarah Palin said in her first sit-down interview that many vice presidents had not met with foreign heads of state before they were elected, the likelihood of that being true in the last century appears slim to none.

Asked by ABC News if she had met with a foreign head of state, Palin said, "I have not and I think if you go back in history and if you ask that question of many vice presidents, they may have the same answer that I just gave you."

When it comes to vice presidential nominees in the 20th century, CBS News Presidential Historian Douglas Brinkley said "That's just false."

Before he was nominated in 2000, Vice President Dick Cheney had met with foreign heads of state as Secretary of Defense. And before they were nominated, 2000 Democratic VP nominee Joe Lieberman, and Vice Presidents Al Gore and Dan Quayle met with them too, as had former President George H. W. Bush. Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, and Walter Mondale too. But who did not?

"The only one I could think of would likely be [former Vice President] Spiro T. Agnew," said Jules Witcover, a veteran Washington political journalist who has written several books on vice presidents. He noted that Agnew was unlikely to have met formally with a foreign leader because he was governor of Maryland for two years before joining Nixon's ticket.

Witcover listed off the names of vice presidents going back to Franklin D. Roosevelt, noting that Agnew was the only one he could think of that might have not met with a foreign leader.

Brinkley said it could only be true if you went way back in American politics, before revolutions in transportation allowed travel to be easier.

"There might have been some vice presidents who never did," said Brinkley, "but that's because we were isolated."

"History shows that presidential nominees often select vice presidents because of their foreign policy experience," said Brinkley, but notes that "it's not an iron clad rule."

"It's particularly so when Franklin Roosevelt picked Harry Truman and had no foreign policy experience but had been a soldier overseas. It later created a lot of confusion in the at the start of the Cold War years that he had no foreign policy experience, but he ended up doing pretty well."

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by jone775 September 15, 2008 3:29 AM EDT: Folks, calm down. Repuglicans don''t stand a chance...they''ve already lost; don''t forget that.; Reply to this comment


by oneamerican4 September 14, 2008 9:04 PM EDT: See the Democrat''s secret campaign strategy revealed in YouTube video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWP5ljQV79s; Reply to this comment


by tonyd_31 September 14, 2008 7:03 PM EDT: Looks like Sara''s bubble is about to burst (but hey....My wife says not so, but I think she has very nice looking legs...and pretty too); Reply to this comment


by tonyd_31 September 14, 2008 7:01 PM EDT: Sarah Palin is not even going to have the oportunity this election cycle. McSame is going to lose and thank God not many folks is buying into this charade for picking her. McSame has showed that he would do anything or say anything to win. People are starting to be turned off. Plus he seems a little dim-witted. We saw how that turned out for us with the current administration.; Reply to this comment


by drmike4777 September 14, 2008 5:32 PM EDT: There was no more experienced politician selected to be Vice President, than Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson served as a United States Representative from Texas from 1937%u20131949 and as United States Senator from 1949%u20131960, including six years as United States Senate Majority Leader, two as Senate Minority Leader and two as Senate Majority Whip, before being selected by John Kennedy to be his V.P. With all that %u201Cexperience%u201D he expanded the Viet Nam War on the advise of Kennedy%u2019s %u201Cwiz kid%u201D, Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, which resulted in the death of over 58,000 American troops and the first defeat in U.S. military history. Obviously, it takes more than experience in foreign policy and meetings with heads of state to make good decisions as Commander-In-Chief. I%u2019m disappointed in the "mainstream" News media and liberal journalist for attacking Gov. Palin on her Foreign Policy experience, when they should focus on her experience, as an extraordinarily accomplished Chief Executive administering an $11 Billion budget and 25,000 state employees as Governor of Alaska. So much for the foreign experience argument!; Reply to this comment


by oneamerican4 September 14, 2008 4:55 PM EDT: Don''t leave out the fact that Bill Clinton had never met with a foreign head of state before becoming president.

If Democrats want to contend that Sarah Palin is unqualified to be VP, then they are really saying that Bill Clinton was certainly unqualified to be President.; Reply to this comment


by rrauch1 September 14, 2008 4:31 PM EDT: Palin''s take on the value of her experience as Mayor of Wasilla: "It''s not rocket science," Palin said, according to the town newspaper, the Frontiersman. "It''s $6 million and 53 employees." That qualifies someone to be VP!; Reply to this comment


by actiscenei September 14, 2008 4:23 PM EDT: John "(Get Me) My Cane!" suddenly isn''t interested in experience anymore. All "My Cane!" wants is to win -- nothing else.

Perhaps he''s doing whatever he can to win ever since he watched "The Bucket List."; Reply to this comment


by rrauch1 September 14, 2008 4:23 PM EDT: Palin and McCain are liars.; Reply to this comment


by jmurrieta11 September 14, 2008 4:04 PM EDT: Palin--NEVER went to Iraq, statements of the Republican party to the contrary.

She seems to share a geography problem with McClone. McClone has a hard time remembering what country borders on what country.

Palin has a hard time remembering what countries she has been in--there are so few of them.

Oh, she did go to Mexico on vacation!

And if you fly to a remote island in the Bering Sea (as Sarah Palin never has) you can see an island under Russian control. You can''t see the Siberian mainland.

And you can''t see either from Wasilla, Juneau, or Anchorage.

Palin is probably the most ignorant VP candidate we''ve had since Agnew.

Although Agnew, as a good Republican, knew how to operate as a bag man collecting the payoffs.

Palin is still learning that.; Reply to this comment