Palin meets world leaders, but keeps the public at arm's length - Kansas City Star

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin took her first tentative steps into the world of international diplomacy Tuesday, beginning a series of meetings with world leaders while simultaneously trying to keep the world - or at least the news media - out.
Palin, whose lack of foreign policy experience has been a target of criticism from her Democratic opponents, met the leaders of Afghanistan and Colombia, key U.S. allies, and then traveled by motorcade to the headquarters of Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon's national security adviser and secretary of state.
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Controversy erupted when the McCain-Palin campaign tried to bar reporters from attending a brief photo session preceding a meeting between Palin and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

CNN, which was providing pooled video of the encounter for the other television networks, threatened to withdraw its cameras, according to network officials, thus denying the campaign the pictures it wanted of Palin-as-diplomat. The campaign relented.

Peter Hamby, a CNN producer, wrote in a pool report that journalists were allowed into the room where Palin and Karzai met for 29 seconds. Above the click of cameras, the two were overheard discussing Karzai's 20-month-old son, Mirwais.

Since GOP nominee Sen. John McCain chose Palin as his running mate, his campaign has tried to shield her from unscripted encounters with the media and the public.

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