Rearing Heads, Wagging Tails

Couric: Well, explain to me why that enhances your foreign-policy credentials.

Palin: Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. And there…

Couric: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

Palin: We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state.

(Katie Couric interview with Sarah Palin, 25 September 2008).

Senior officials of Russian energy company Gazprom, including personal associates of Vladimir Putin, met in Anchorage with Alaska's Department of Natural Resources to discuss investing in energy projects in the state. Governor Sarah Palin said that she did not know about the meeting. Putin's black labrador was given a satellite-monitoring collar. "She looks sad," said Russian Deputy Minister Sergei Ivanov. "Her free life is over." "She is wagging her tail," said Putin. "That means she likes it."

(Sam Stark, "Weekly Review", in Harper's, 21 October 2008).