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Palin and Libya

Just as she has become irrelevant, Sarah Palin has started staking out less absurd foreign policy positions: Still, Palin clearly stated a foreign policy philosophy that she says dates back to the Reagan administration – but in many ways came off as a five-point folksy version of the Powell Doctrine. What has been interesting to […]

Just as she has become irrelevant, Sarah Palin has started staking out less absurd foreign policy positions:

Still, Palin clearly stated a foreign policy philosophy that she says dates back to the Reagan administration – but in many ways came off as a five-point folksy version of the Powell Doctrine.

What has been interesting to watch is how Rand Paul and Michele Bachmann’s positions on Libya seem to be gaining more traction inside the GOP compared to the pro-escalation views of Rubio, McCain and the like. I don’t assume that Palin’s shift is all that significant, but it may be an indication of just how great the gap isbetween her former neoconservative advisors and the rank-and-file of the party that Palin has tried to cultivate. It is probably also an indication that those advisors don’t see Palin running in 2012, or perhaps they assume that she isn’t going anywhere in the 2012 race if she does run. It may suggest that Bachmann has struck a chord with conservatives on Libya, and Palin is attempting to play catch-up.

Politico‘s Ben Smith attributes this change to a change in advisors:

The personnel shift carries an ideological charge. Scheunemann, the former executive director of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, is a longtime neoconservative stalwart, as is Goldfarb, a former reporter and protege of Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol. They crafted for Palin a policy platform and voice reflecting an eagerness to use American force. The pair, who helped Palin with press and debate prep in 2008, were also something of Palin’s last link to Washington’s political establishment.

But Palin parted ways with that aggressive internationalism in a speech yesterday, condemning U.S. involvement in Libya and laying out a more cautious philosophy of the use of force. Schweizer has articulated a more skeptical view of the use of American force and promotion of democracy abroad.

If Palin’s views can be so noticeably changed by acquiring new advisors, it doesn’t inspire any confidence that she has given any more thought or has any better understanding of these issues than she did when she was repeating the phrases Scheunemann and Goldfarb were giving her.

Update: The wolves devour each other!

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