Palin Visits the Troops...

I set out this morning to see if I could find anything at all – good or bad – about Palin's attitude toward our troops. I was especially looking for anything that occurred well before her getting the VP slot. In her Dayton speech, she referenced her son Track, who's in the Army and about to be deployed to Iraq – but politicians are slippery beasts, and I wanted some evidence that was uncolored by her recent leap onto the national stage.

Well, it wasn't hard to find what I was looking for, because it turns out that last year (2007), shortly into her tenure as Governor of Alaska, she embarked on a worldwide tour to the places where Alaska's troops are serving. The top photo shows her visiting with an injured soldier in Germany (which of course immediately brings to mind Obama's snub on his recent trip). The bottom photo shows her visiting with some Alaskan troops (their faces make their Inuit heritage evident) in Kuwait. This trip was widely – and very approvingly – covered in the contemporaneous press reports.

In addition to that tour, as Governor she has made many visits to military facilities in Alaska. It's also easy to find approving references to her by military support organizations, for whom she's made publicity appearances, helped with fund raising, and made contributions herself. Even before she was Governor she was involved in these efforts.

In other words, her record demonstrates a clear commitment to our troops. The news reports at the time have many quotes from the soldiers themselves – some what you'd expect from young men who get to sit down and talk with a beauty queen; others more substantive words of praise for their Governor who so obviously cares about them. Not a negative peep of any kind.

Chalk up one more plus in her column for me...