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Palin to Speak US Foreign Policy in Hong Kong, Closed Session

by Blue Crush | September 22, 2009 at 09:49 am

192 views | 62 Recommendations | 11 comments

Former Alaskan governor and US vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin is due to speak in Hong Kong on Wednesday about her views on US foreign policy, health care, and governance at a CLSA Investor Forum. This will be her first speaking engagement outside North America.

CLSA is Asia's leading independent brokerage and investment group and has an annual conference attended by high-powered investors representing the Asia Pacific markets. They've hosted past speakers such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Desmond Tutu and Alan Greenspan.

The group has decided to close her session to the media when Palin suggested she'd have to adjust her speech if reporters were present.

"We have asked her to address US foreign policy, to discuss her views on governance, healthcare, and of course, China," Jonathan Slone, chief executive officer of the Asia-focused brokerage, said in an interview with AFP.

Randy Scheunemann, John McCain's former foreign-policy aide, has confirmed that he's with her in Hong Kong and acting as her advisor.

"What we look to do is invite our keynote speakers who we feel are opinion makers, who are newsworthy and who we feel our clients -- a very broad international client base -- would be interested in hearing from," Wheeler said Monday, noting that CLSA is a politically neutral, independent brokerage. "We certainly believe that Sarah Palin will be -- she has been in the news -- we believe that she will continue to be a newsmaker in the future and therefore someone we feel that is definitely of interest to fund managers."

Well, she certainly is an opinion maker, and newsworthy, although not without controversy.

But US foreign policy and health care?

Let's hope she's done her homework.

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a211423

at 12:17 on September 22nd, 2009

Blue Crush

Let's hope she's done her homework

Even if she did her homework, it is questionable, based on her previous interviews, whether she is capable of presenting an informed, fact substantiated opinion focusing on the economics of domestic and foreign policy grounded in experience and scholorship. Even the Chinese believed that a closed session would be prudent; although, I am sure her speech will reach the tenacles of the internet.

Blue Crush

at 15:57 on September 22nd, 2009

Hey, I'm trying to be unbiased here, although that word CAPABLE came to my mind as well.

Karen Hatter

at 12:29 on September 22nd, 2009

She'll have to face the media sometime, if she is to live up to the hype that she still is one of the Republican Party's up and coming stars.

Blue Crush

at 15:58 on September 22nd, 2009

Hope there's a bootlegged recording!

a211423

at 13:41 on September 22nd, 2009

She is a niche representative of the Republican party, and no doubt she captured the attention of the media and some in her party. But I never thought of her as a star or a true representative of traditional conservatism in the William Buckley sense, and probably few Republicans do today.

Here is a short definition of traditional conservatism.

http://www.traditionalconservative.com/TCExcerpt1.htm

The Republican party has strayed far afield from traditional Conservatism. There is a new book out called The Death of Conservatism by Sam Tanenhaus who is a lifelong Conservative. He was interviewed by Bill Moyers and spoke elegantly about a kind of Conservatism that has ceased to exist. I am a lifelong liberal, but the basic tenents of Conservatism that purported conservation of the natural world I always supported as far back as the William Buckley days. He was a strict conservationist.

Karen Hatter

at 13:48 on September 22nd, 2009

Neither did I see her as a star, A.

But, that's what I keep hearing from some Republican talking heads.

a211423

at 14:30 on September 22nd, 2009

Who are the leaders in the Republican Party nowadays? Their party has splintered into specific interest groups without a unifying belielf system that guides and tempers their platform. Most prominently I hear about what they are against, rather than core beliefs, except for limiting government--unless of course it has to do with controlling gay people, reproductive rights, or stem cell research, and interestingly enough restricting Conservation legislation to name a few. Then they want all the government control they can get.