January 5, 2010 5:52 PM

Sarah Palin: Obama's Terrorism Approach "Fatally Flawed"

By
Stephanie Condon
Topics
Republicans
(AP)
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin railed against President Obama today, saying "his fundamental approach to terrorism is fatally flawed" and that "the real nature of the terrorist threat requires a commander-in-chief, not a constitutional law professor."

The same day the president met with his national security team to discuss the security reviews he ordered after the alleged attempt to blow up a plane on Christmas Day, Palin posted a note on Facebook criticizing the administration's response to the event.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly attempted to blow up the plane headed for Detroit, Mich., "is an enemy of the United States, not just another criminal defendant," Palin wrote. Abdulmutallab is currently in federal custody, in which he told U.S. investigators he received training and instructions from al Qaeda operatives in Yemen.

"It simply makes no sense to treat an al Qaeda-trained operative willing to die in the course of massacring hundreds of people as a common criminal," Palin wrote. "Reports indicate that Abdulmutallab stated there were many more like him in Yemen but that he stopped talking once he was read his Miranda rights. President Obama's advisers lamely claim Abdulmutallab might be willing to agree to a plea bargain – pretty doubtful you can cut a deal with a suicide bomber."

Special Report: The Christmas Day Terror Attack

She added, "We are at war with radical Islamic extremists and treating this threat as a law enforcement issue is dangerous for our nation's security. That's what happened in the 1990s and we saw the result on September 11, 2001."

Palin fails to address the fact that the Bush administration prosecuted "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, an al Qaeda operative, in civilian court, and he is now serving a life term in maximum-security prison.

The former 2008 vice presidential candidate also says that "acts of terrorism are just that, not 'man caused disasters,'" invoking the infamous phrasing from Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

"I was totally misinterpreted in a sense of what I was trying to communicate," Napolitano later told the New York Times. "It was just a mistake. In the editing process, that phrase, usually it's 'terrorism or other man-caused disasters.'"

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by JV1970 January 7, 2010 4:28 AM EST
LeighOats I didn't attempt to revise anything. I just stated the facts. You are no different than the rest of the liberals and Palin haters. You think you know her but in reality you don't know her at all! You are judging her because she is not good at giving snap spur of the moment answers. You should judge her on her record and I'm not talking about the things that you've heard about in the media. There are many things that she's done to help the people of Alaska that you haven't heard about in the media. There are also many things that the media has reported but didn't give the full details of. They left out many details to slant public opinion of her to their side. However, she brings out those details in her book. In fact she brings out many things that you haven't heard about in the media! Her book is a very well written book and not at all the childish book that you think it is. The woman in the book is a much different person than the one that you think you know. The woman behind the smile and the winks and the "hillbilly" personality is a woman with a much higher IQ than you think. Many state politicians and people in public office in Alaska have made the mistake that you are making about her intelligence to their dismay. They found out the hard way just how stupid she is NOT and they are now out of office! They were corrupt and she went after them and got them put out of office! She also went to battle against the oil companies and the gas companies in her state and made them live up to the Alaskan state laws and was instrumental in getting a major gas pipeline built from Alaska to the lower 48 states. She made many enemies in Alaska because some people thought she was stupid and they thought that they could get by with their corruption under her watch as the mayor of Wasilla and then as the governor of Alaska. They found out that she is not nearly as stupid as they thought she is when they found themselves out of office and without jobs! You judge her without really knowing her. If you would only read her book you would see that the woman behind the smile and the winks is really not at all the woman that you think she is! She's tough, she's smart, and she has courage!
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by steeepe January 7, 2010 1:03 PM EST
Her book was co-written and, I bet, mainly written by someone else. Refreshing naivete should not be confused with being a "maverick". I don't dispute that Palin has some good qualities. But she is way out of her depth intellectually when it comes to serious analysis of national issues. Part of the problem with this country is that we try to make people like her leaders. Other countries are going to zip ahead of us on all fronts in we leave decision making to people like Palin, who doesn't even believe in evolution. That alone should disqualify her from consideration as a leader, no matter how nice she may be.
by LeighOats January 6, 2010 4:38 PM EST
Says JV1970 ("January 6, 2010 5:29 AM EST"):

_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|

[Sarah Palin] knows exactly what magazines she reads but simply refused to answer that question because it was an insult to the Alaskan people! It implied that Alaskans are illiterate and don't know what's going on in the rest of the country. It was an insult! Also none of the other candidates were asked that question! Why should she be? The other candidates' intelligence was always respected. Sarah should have been shown the same respect. She did exactly right by not answering that question.

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Dear JV1970, here's a correction of your attempt at revisionism: on 30 September 2008 aLASka's gubernatorial out-to-lunch (let's be gentle with her, because she's only a woman? I'm reminded of Harry S Truman's comment about heat and kitchens) did _not_ refuse to answer Katie Couric's famous question (about not only magazines but also newspapers). She launched into a prolix answer with floundering but ingratiatingly smiling gusto:

++++++++++

KC: And when it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious: What newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this, to stay informed and to understand the world?

SP: I've read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media---

KC: But, like, what ones specifically? I?m curious that you---

SP: Um---all of 'em, any of 'em that, um, have, um, been in front of me over all these years.

KC: Can you name any of them?

SP: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too.

++++++++++

You continue: "She also should have told Katie Couric to her face and on camera what an insult it was!"

She did, sort of, in the milquetoast, subject-evading, beauty-contest way that when she's speaking impromptu is her _only_ way:

*******************

SP: Alaska isn't a foreign country, where it's kind of suggested, it seems like, "Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington DC may be thinking and doing when you live up there in Alaska?" Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.

*******************

And will-o'-the-wisp Palin is a microcosm of the lessons that the venerable Republican Party must learn about the mature-politics direction it must rediscover if it's to have a chance in the presidential election of 2012. It must resist the current attempt by benighted Ozarkians to hijack it towards a new dark age of inaction and of uneducated fears.

The world's so-called "liberals" don't _hate_ her. That schoolgirl word "hate" is thrown around mainly by those supposedly Republican-voting vandals who try to show that the world's mistrust and scorn of her is somehow only a juvenile _personal_ thing and not a mature worry about lack of judiciousness or worldly wisdom. The US Democratic Party's faithfuls are absolutely _relishing_ the prospect of a 2012 contest that has her in one corner. Hate doesn't come into it.

But the world has been thanking her for providing ineffably enjoyable entertainment since August 2008 (a year and a half simply _flies_ if we're having fun!) when the former high-altitude bomber John McCain plucked her (a fellow prisoner?) out of the blue (or the white?) to run the Senate or whatever her job would have been. My main criticism of the stand-up and sit-down comedian's thespian talent is that she's been plagiarising material and style from Tina Fey.
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by LeilahKowalski January 6, 2010 3:47 PM EST
My friends are mostly Republicans. They want Sarah Palin to stop everything she is doing in the News. Sarah should run a normal life back in Alaska so our country and the world will not be mislead and suffer. Sarah misrepresents herself as someone that actually knows something. She is acting like she is important and has something meaningful to say.
Reply to this comment
by Leaderless January 7, 2010 11:34 AM EST
Really now.......
by c_johnthan January 9, 2010 12:47 PM EST
people like you, have to suffer, because you don't have a basic reasoning skills.
so from 2012, you will learn more about who can be a real leader of this world.

personally, i think it is supposed to be Sarah Palin, not obama, not hillary, not at all.
by LeilahKowalski January 6, 2010 3:41 PM EST
Sarah Palins attacks on the President are totally flawed.
Reply to this comment
by steeepe January 6, 2010 1:42 PM EST
Palin doesn't know what she's talking about, as usual. Obama's response to the Christmas Day bombing was entirely appropriate and much deeper and broader than Bush's response to the shoe bomber, if you recall. The Obama administration has been focusing on Yemen and Pakistan and Afghanistan. What did Bush do? Started a wasteful and stupid war in Iraq. Nobody's perfect, but Obama is clearly far better than the dumb duo of Bush and Cheney when it comes to national security. And Palin doesn't even figure in the picture.
Reply to this comment
by Leaderless January 6, 2010 3:18 PM EST
obama was focusing on his golf game, cocktails, shooting hoops and partying then got around to the bomber.
Even the dumbest of the dumbs know that you don't close Gitmo......and then along come barack..........
by steeepe January 6, 2010 4:23 PM EST
Ever check how many weeks Bush spent on vacation? Where was Bush during the "shoe bombing"? On vacation! He didn't say a word about it for nearly a week. Gitmo has been a recruiting tool for the terrorists. Any fool knows that. Try to get your facts straight before you start complaining about Obama...
by ginagagnon January 6, 2010 9:48 AM EST
Sarah is a joke. Tina Fey has more sence than Sarah has. We voted for Obama as the least of two evils.......Palin and McCain.

Sarah cannot control her own home, how would she be if she were made President? The oval office would become a beauty salon with Sarah having her nails done. I can hear her screeching now "I broke a nail! Give me the box! I want to press the button! I want WAR!" But Sarah war with whom? Her answer? "I don't care with who! Just let's make a war!" Comments like the following would be the order of the day - "Where's my rouge pot?" "Has anyone seen my mascara?" "What color lipstick goes with this?" "Who wants to do my toenails?" "Bristol's pregnant again - anyone know the father?"

Come on guys, get real. This elk/wolf/chicken hick from Alaska can't keep her hair fixed let alone fix what's wrong with our country.

Obama inherited a terrible mess from the Republicans. He's trying to fix it, and no one will even stand behind him. This is why the USA is becoming the laughing stock of the world, and why the terrorists are trying to kill us off.
Reply to this comment
by ffoulkes-2009 January 6, 2010 9:51 AM EST
You, ginagagnon are insane.
by alienken January 6, 2010 9:14 AM EST
In the article it points out that the shoe bomber was treated as a criminal in the Bush admin.. I would like to see Sarah palin respond to that like I do... Bush was wrong also.
Obama supporters rairly deal with the issues. It's either "Bush's fault" or "he did it too". Let's get them back to the issue.
Ken
Reply to this comment
by watervliet January 6, 2010 9:08 AM EST
IDIOT!!! GO AWAY AND MAYBE GO BACK TO SCHOOL AND GET EDUCATED. CAN'T STAND THE WAY YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH. QUITTER!!! HEY! RUSH LIMBAUGH YOU NEED TO MARRY HER AND HAVE GOOD OLD TIME WITH GLEN BECK..
Reply to this comment
by babooph January 6, 2010 9:01 AM EST
The media loves an idiot.
Reply to this comment
by ffoulkes-2009 January 6, 2010 9:09 AM EST
Wow...you aught to call them up for your interview, babooph.
by holalanemeir January 6, 2010 8:49 AM EST
Birthers, breeders and Flat-earthers all support her.
Reply to this comment
by doctor_know January 6, 2010 12:05 PM EST
So do the Mor(m)ons
by JV1970 January 6, 2010 1:12 PM EST
Idiot! If your parents hadn't been birthers and breeders YOU wouldn't have been born! NOBODY would have been because we all, including you Palin haters, came into this world the same way! Our parents bred and then our mothers gave birth to us!
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