In October, 2008, when she was speaking as the Republican vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin said the following:
“After the Russian army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama’s reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence – the kind of response that would only encourage Russia’s Putin to invade Ukraine next.” [emphasis mine]
The very respectable Foreign Policy magazine described Palin’s suggestion as an “extremely far-fetched scenario”.
Fast forward to March 1, 2014, when Putin just asked the Russian parliament to authorize the sending of troops into Crimea, ostensibly to protect Russian nationals and help normalize the situation.
In a world where Sarah Palin’s geopolitical concerns come true and respectable foreign policy institutions are eating crow, everything is possible.
And now, I am officially scared.
Well, if the good folks at Foreign Policy magazine had actually bothered to have a close look at Mr Obama, they might not have been quite so skeptical. Still, I suppose I shouldn’t be *too* hard on them; there’s a natural tendency to assume that the American political system will function as designed and screen out anybody as breathtakingly incompetent as Obama has proved to be, before they get to a position where they can do any real damage …