Palin Defends Alaska-Russia Comment

Her state's proximity gives her foreign policy experience, she says
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 25, 2008 8:16 PM CDT
Palin Defends Alaska-Russia Comment
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, left, walks along the grounds of the United Nations with television news anchor Katie Couric Wednesday.   (AP Photo)

Sarah Palin defended a widely ridiculed remark that the close proximity of Russia to her home state of Alaska gives her foreign policy experience. "Well, it certainly does because our next-door neighbors are foreign countries," she told Katie Couric in an interview that aired on CBS tonight. "As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go?” she asked. “It’s Alaska."

Asked why she obtained a passport only last year, Palin said, "I'm not one of those who maybe came from a background of, you know, kids who perhaps graduate college and their parents give them a passport and give them a backpack and say go off and travel the world. No, I've worked all my life. In fact, I usually had two jobs all my life until I had kids. I was not a part of, I guess, that culture." (More Sarah Palin stories.)

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