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Palin, in a bubble, meets her first world leaders

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-24 10:23

NEW YORK -- Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin met her first world leaders Tuesday.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin (L) meets with Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe in New York, September 23, 2008. Palin began two days of talks with foreign leaders on Tuesday ahead of a debate coming up with her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden. [Agencies]

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It was a tightly controlled crash course on foreign policy for the first-term Alaska governor, who has been outside North America just once.

Palin sat down with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. The private conversation and public pictures were meant to pad her resume for voters concerned about her lack of experience in world affairs.

"I found her quite a capable woman," Karzai said later. "She asked the right questions on Afghanistan."

The self-described "hockey mom" also asked former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for insights on Georgia, Russia, China and Iran, and she'll see more leaders Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, three hours behind Palin in seeing Karzai, found herself overshadowed for a day as she made her own rounds.

Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign has shielded Palin for weeks from spontaneous questions from voters and reporters, and went to striking lengths Tuesday to maintain that distance as Palin made her diplomatic debut.

The Republican campaign, applying more restrictive rules on access than even President George W. Bush uses in the White House, banned reporters from the start of the meetings, so as not to risk a question being asked of Palin.

McCain aides relented after news organizations objected and CNN, which was supplying TV footage to a variety of networks, decided to pull its TV crew from Palin's meeting with Karzai.

Palin is studying foreign policy ahead of her one debate with Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden, a senator with deep credentials on that front. More broadly, the Republican ticket is trying to counter questions exploited by Democrats about her qualifications to serve as vice president and step into the presidency at a moment's notice if necessary.

There was no chance of putting such questions to rest with photo opportunities Tuesday.

But Palin, who got a passport only last year, no longer has to own up to a blank slate when asked about heads of state she has met.

She also got her first intelligence briefing Tuesday, over two hours long.

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