Sarah Palin Got Her First Passport In 2006

Should it really matter if a Vice Presidential candidate has a passport or not? Should it make a difference if that person is well-traveled, or has only been out of the country just once?

According to Mrod Nation, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin got her first passport in 2006! Hmm… that’s interesting.

Sarah Palin got her first passport in 2006, reports the Boston Globe. Read that again. 2006. And has visited exactly 4 countries, Canada, Iraq, Kuwait, and Germany.

Now according to Wikipedia.org:

In 2006, Palin obtained a passport and in 2007 traveled for the first time outside of North America on a trip to Kuwait. There she visited the Khabari Alawazem Crossing at the Kuwait–Iraq border and met with members of the Alaska National Guard at several bases. On her return trip to the U.S., she visited injured soldiers in Germany.

So, her out-of-the-country, out-of-Alaska experiences had to do with visiting the Alaska National Guard in Iraq and Kuwait, and on the way back visiting wounded soldiers in Germany.

Basically, she has visited other nations starting only last year in 2007, and as far as foreign affairs go… well, she has no direct experience in dealing with political officials of other nations. And I’m almost certain that her first trip abroad was to provide support for her Alaska troops abroad.

Now one of the new sources on television had covered the Sarah Palin passport issue, but in all honesty, they said approximately 88 million Americans DO have a passport. This is less than 1/3 of the entire U.S. population! And in 2006, Governor Sarah Palin finally became a part of that group.

What to make of it? Should it really matter to someone who could be the next VP of the United States? And, quite possibly President of the United States, if for some reason John McCain is unable to serve as President?

Well, this new knowledge makes me wonder because as a regular American citizen, I’ve had a passport far longer than Sarah Palin, and I’ve been to more countries than she has. Damn right that’s a fact in my book!

Sarah Palin - Age 44 - First Passport in 2006 - Visited 4 Countries (Canada, Iraq, Kuwait, Germany)

Me - Age 50 - First Passport in 1976 - Visited 7 Countries (Philippines, Japan, England, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Mexico)

From The Boston Globe:

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin got her first passport in 2006 and has visited just four countries, and she had little involvement in her state’s cross-border issues, raising questions about her supporters’ assertions that Alaska’s proximity to Russia has given her unique experience on foreign affairs.

From the New York Times:

Ms. Palin appears to have traveled very little outside the United States. In July 2007, she had to get a passport before she visited members of the Alaska National Guard stationed in Kuwait, according to her deputy communications director, Sharon Leighow. She also visited wounded troops in Germany during that trip.

Now in her defense, Governor Sarah Palin said in her interview with Katie Couric, that she basically didn’t have that opportunity, had to work two jobs, and raise a family.

From the L.A. Times:

She told the CBS newsperson that she had to work, sometimes two jobs, and that’s why she didn’t backpack around Europe like privileged kids do.

“I’m not one of those who maybe come from a background of, you know, kids who perhaps graduated college and their parents get them a passport and a backpack and say, ‘Go off and travel the world.’ Noooo. I worked all my life. In fact, I usually had two jobs all my life, until I had kids. … I was not part of, I guess, that culture.”

So, should we hold this against her, that she never had a U.S. Passport until just two years ago, and hasn’t traveled abroad until just last year?

One could argue that nowadays the world is at our fingertips in the Information Age of The Internet. Or you could say that it’s important (as a Vice Presidential Candidate) to be well-traveled and be familiar with the subtleties and nuances of how other nations and governments work, details that can only be grasped by actually journeying to those foreign lands.