September 18th, 2008
Hagel questions Palin experience
Posted by: Andy Sullivan

Sarah Palin has energized the Republican base since John McCain picked
her as his vice-presidential running mate, but one prominent Republican
is not impressed.
Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Republican, is questioning whether Palin
has enough foreign-policy experience to serve as the country’s
second-in-command. “She doesn’t have any foreign policy credentials,”
Hagel told the Omaha World-Herald. “You get a passport for the first
time in your life last year? I mean, I don’t know what you can say. You
can’t say anything.”

“I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense
about, ‘I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know
something about Russia,” he added. “That kind of thing is insulting to
the American people.”

A conservative Vietnam War veteran and outspoken critic of the Iraq War,
Hagel has cultivated a reputation as somebody unafraid to buck his party.

Hagel traveled with Democratic candidate Barack Obama to Afghanistan in
July and was mentioned as a possible Obama running mate. He had kind
words for Obama’s eventual pick, Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden.

“An Obama-Biden ticket is a very impressive and strong team,” Hagel said
in August.


snerk