The Sarah Palin of the Left?

Bernie Sanders admits he knows little about Latin America. But he wants to sell us the same Socialist solutions which are failing miserably there.

 

When John McCain nominated Sarah Palin, everyone was ecstatic.  I remember hearing her "pit bull lipstick" speech (a line she ad-libbed) the night she was nominated and thought, "Wow, this is a real game-changer!"

Not that I was impressed by her ideas, but her delivery was top-notch and she knew how to work an audience.   McCain had a real powerhouse VP candidate who could rile up the crowds.

But it all came unraveled when people started asking her questions.   Questions like "What newspapers and magazines do you read?" ("All of them" was her lame answer).   In retrospect, she should have stuck to the stump speech and avoided all interviews.

Of course, Palin claimed that such questions were "gotchas" - designed to make her look foolish.   But in reality, they were just exposing her underlying foolishness.   Maybe the one about the "Bush Doctrine" was a bit "gotcha" as no one really used that term at the time - or even now.   It was a vague, open-ended question.   But she could have handled it better - just by saying, "Well, define what you mean by the Bush Doctrine!" 

Water over the dam at this point.

In a recent interview on Univision, however, Bernie Sanders illustrated his lightweight credentials.  When asked questions about something other than "the big banks" and "Wall Street" he flummoxed and flubbed it.  He didn't want to offer an opinion about the situation in Venezuela, which is about to erupt into civil war.  And likely that was for the obvious reason that the socialist policies of Chavez are not far off those that Sanders would like to implement (but of course, could never actually get through Congress).

At least Sanders was man enough to admit when he had a blind spot in his resume:

Sanders spoke about the drug war and immigration, but when pressed on the levels of violence in Central America caused by the U.S.’ deportation of hardened gang members, the Vermont Senator said “Look, you’re asking me questions about the impact on Central America, which honestly I should know more than I do know.”

You know, maybe he should serve in some capacity with the government where he would learn about foreign affairs and be up on these sort of things.   Maybe Secretary of State or something.

Yea, it would be swell to have a President who used to be Secretary of State.   Good idea.

Maybe we've had enough of amateur hour?

UPDATE:   This frightening quote from Bernie's Senate Blog:

"These days, the American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina, where incomes are actually more equal today than they are in the land of Horatio Alger. Who's the banana republic now?" 

Do you want to be the next Venezuela?   It frightens me that he looks to Latin American socialism as a model for future development, when the human rights record in Venezuela under Chavez was anything but good.

UPDATE:   Do you like bread lines?  Because Bernie thinks they are the sign of a country that is functioning well:

Scary, scary stuff.