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Palin meets world leaders at UN, ducks press corps

BY TOM BRUNE | tom.brune@newsday.com

September 24, 2008

On a whirlwind day in Manhattan yesterday, Sarah Palin had her first national security briefing, met her first heads of state and got her first foreign policy tutorial from Henry Kissinger - but she still has not held her first news conference.

Palin came to New York City as the United Nations convened its annual General Assembly so she could acquire foreign policy knowledge and connections - and the pictures of her with foreign leaders - that she needs as GOP presidential candidate John McCain's running mate.

But in the news media capital of the world, Palin dodged reporters and their questions. She's given two TV interviews but hasn't held a news conference since McCain tapped her on Aug. 29.

Palin barred all print reporters and a TV news producer from the photo shoot of the start of her meeting with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, until TV news shows threatened to not shoot the event. After that, they were allowed in to get a glimpse before being ushered back outside.

Palin, 44, a first-term Alaska governor with little experience outside North America, mostly listened as she sought to bond with Karzai and Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe in essentially "personal" meetings, said an adviser.

"Gov. Palin in these meetings is cognizant that she is a candidate for office," said her senior foreign policy adviser, Stephen Biegun, after the meetings.

"So rather than make specific policy prescriptions, she was largely listening, having [an] exchange of views, and also very interested in forming a relationship with people she met with today," he said.

In the minute-long photo shoot with Karzai, she talked to him about his young son.

"What is his name?" Palin asked.

"Mirwais," Karzai said. "Mirwais, which means, 'The Light of the House.'"

"Oh, nice," Palin said.

Palin also is cramming for a big test next week, the vice-presidential debate with her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In Kissinger, a former secretary of state and national security adviser, she found a willing tutor. The meeting with him stretched from its scheduled 30 minutes to more than an hour.

"The meeting with Dr. Kissinger was, in Gov. Palin's words, 'an excellent meeting,'" said Biegun. "They covered a full range of pressing national security issues" and "focused on Russia, Iran and China."

In her meetings, he added, Palin also talked about energy as a national security issue, problems exploited by terrorist groups, and the U.S. commitment to independent and stable countries bordering Russia.

While leaving Kissinger's office, she came the closest she has come to responding to a question, shouted by a news producer about how the meeting went. Palin inaudibly mouthed: "It was great."