This little tidbit in the Washington Post about Sarah Palin’s “Tea Party Convention” speech caught my eye.
She wore a fitted black suit, black hose and high black platform heels. She had on three opera-length strands of pearls, two white and one multi-colored. In her lapel, a small pin with two flags — for Israel and the United States.
Look, it’s a pretty open secret that Palin intends to run for President in 2012. That being the case, I’m surprised this hasn’t caught more attention. I can’t think of any major politician who openly wears the flag of foreign power–especially to a political event. A little digging indicates that in her brief term as Governor of Alaska, she also displayed an Israeli flag in her office.
Now, I personally don’t have any problem with showing support for Israel, which is, after all, one of our allies. But openly wearing a foreign flag at political events and displaying a foreign flag in the governor’s office does beg the question of whether Palin herself feels that she might feel like she owes loyalty to two different nations–or at the very least, to the alliance of the two countries above.
This is not a dig at Palin’s patriotism, which I have no doubt about, even though my own patriotism leans in the direction of keeping her as far from public office as possible in order to prevent damaging this country. What I do have a question about is that if Palin does achieve an office of public trust, such as the Presidency, how will her open support for Israel translate when making policy decisions where American and Israeli interests are at odds? I know that Israel looks out for itself–good lord, we know they spy on us (and hopefully we spy on them back, but given the general incompetence of the CIA, no guarantees there.)
I don’t know that this means anything about Palin’s decision-making. I just find it strange because I can’t think of any other politician who displays foreign flags so openly. If I’m wrong on this point, please correct me–if it’s more common, then it’s not that big a deal.
