Sarah Palin can add “national security” to the growing list of areas in which she plays an expert on Fox News. Yes, the world’s most famous ignoramus has been trotted out to play both a Constitutional expert and an immigration expert on the Hannity show. Last night, she was trotted out to attack, I mean discuss President Obama’s “new apology tour” in the Middle East. Oh, and while they were at it, Hannity dropped a little suggestion that President Obama is in cahoots with Al Qaeda.
Palin shared her nuggets of wisdom and knowledge that were sure to impress viewers around the world:
How is that U.S. apology tour working out for ya, Mr. President?
...Our Commander-in-Chief is contradicting what we believe our troops’ mission is and that is to protect freedom.
The choice of Palin as a guest strongly indicated that Hannity’s goal for the segment was maximum smearing and minimal constraint by the facts. That suspicion was confirmed by his next set of “questions” that also contained a Freudian slip. “Is it Al Qaeda (the Obama administration is) protecting, too, in the process? Because why? They don’t want to admit that, you know, saying they stopped torture worked (sic) and the apology tour didn’t work? What is the thinking behind this?”
And who would know better about the “thinking” behind the Obama administration’s actions in the Middle East than Palin? Well, she was appearing on the show from a remote in Las Vegas. Maybe she could see the Luxor from her hotel.
Or maybe the blinds in her room were down. Palin didn't seem able to glean anything about the Obama administration's intent. But she nonetheless conveyed her view of American exceptionalism, delivered in a schoolmarmish, sing-song cadence:
Certainly, he is succeeding in weakening America when it comes to these foreign policies that he has adopted… I believe that other countries are looking at America today as this paper tiger, that we’re not going to follow through on threats or sanctions or those things that we need to do to be that beacon of hope and bright light that other countries could look to America and wish to emulate, those practices of ours to help create a safer, more peaceful world.
What foreign leader wouldn’t look upon this prime time discussion on our country’s top-rated news channel without feeling lifted up by all the hope and bright light emanating from these two national figures?