Hot Air has posted a great clip of Major General Craig Campbell of the Alaska National Guard explaining Gov. Palin’s role in leading the Guard. An excerpt from Ed’s analysis:
I especially liked the part with Major General Craig Campbell, who explained that governors are a little more than just figureheads as the C-in-C of National Guard troops. Palin took that task seriously, traveling to Kuwait to check on Alaska’s troops deployed in the war zone shortly after her election and involving herself in planning for their well-being. Campbell also criticizes the national press for reporting incorrectly on the Guard and governors’ roles in running its units. Governor Palin ordered the deployment of the Guard just this past week — to Louisiana, in assistance to the Hurricane Gustav area.
I can see why General Campbell was a little angry over this, as it was his words that were being spun by the MSM and the left to ding Gov. Palin. An example:
We have all heard the ridiculous claim that Sarah Palin has more experience than Barak Obama because she is the Commander and Chief of the Alaska National Guard. This is such a joke; I can’t believe people don’t bust out laughing when it’s said. The only things more inane being said is that she has foreign policy experience because Alaska is close to Russia (they don’t share a border, as some have said) and that she is a reformer.
Now it turns out Sarah Palin has never issued an order to the Alaska National Guard.
When John McCain introduced Sarah Palin as his running mate last Friday, he emphasized her role as the commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard as a reason why she was his choice. Then throughout the week as questions were raised about Palin’s lack of experience in national and international affairs, the McCain campaign pointed again to her military command experience as governor.
Some reporters have even tried to follow up on this point. One such reporter was Campbell Brown on CNN, when she asked “Can you tell me one decision that she made as commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard?” This was a legitimate question by Campbell Brown, asked while interviewing McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds. “Just one?” she followed up when he tried to argue she was denigrating Governor Palin. His answers were rediculous, and he looked stupid, and John McCain threw a tempertantrum afterwords.
That Tucker Bounds couldn’t give a real answer was because Sarah Palin has never personally ordered her state’s National Guard to do anything.
First Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, the service commander of the Alaska National Guard has stated the governor has no command authority when their National Guard units are overseas or anywhere else in the United States other than their own state.“When members of the National Guard are federalized, they work for the president,” Campbell said Wednesday. “It’s not just overseas. They could be federalized to go to other states or they could even be federalized in the state.”
Good for Greta and a great interview to get the truth out.