Sarah Palin is going to India.

[^_^ 5,021]

Sarah Palin is going to India next month to speak at the 10th annual India Today Conclave, a high profile talk shop of "global thought leaders" hosted in the Indian capital ... Her speech, according to reports, is tentatively titled "My Vision for America."

...

Palin is not known to be much of a traveler. I was on the scene in September 2009 when she delivered her first speech abroad, in Hong Kong, at a packed conference of bankers and fund managers ... [H]er address was strictly off-limits to the press, and so we grubby servants of the fourth estate had to chase desperately around the lobby of Hong Kong's Grand Hyatt, seeking comments from pinstriped Masters of the Universe who had heard Palin speak.

...

Here are some highlights, from my report of the event.

She spoke of the Great Recession...

Addressing the financial crisis, she declared there was no need for new regulation: "Lack of government wasn't the problem. Government policies were the problem. The markets didn't fail. Government failed."

... talked about her connections to Asia:

According to many delegates, Palin's home state of Alaska dominated the talk. "She rambled on about the place for ages," says an Indian banker with a major U.S. firm. "Palin even talked about Alaska's land bridges with Asia and how animals once went across." Based on a recording it reviewed, the Wall Street Journal says Palin invoked her husband Todd's Eskimo heritage as a sign of shared "bloodlines" between the continents.

... and didn't take many questions:

Though dubbed "a conversation with Sarah Palin," the event turned out to be more of a monologue. She spoke for almost 90 minutes, all the way to 2 p.m., when the session was supposed to end. As an attendee said while walking out, "she clearly wanted to keep talking so there'd be no questions."

In retrospect, it seems the Hong Kong speech was a kind of beginner's level as Palin cultivates her political persona abroad. Insulated by a phalanx of business elites in a slick chrome and glass city that is ruled, ultimately, by authoritarian Beijing, Palin had the luxury of jetting in, checking into her suite at the Hyatt, and slipping away through back corridors surrounded by an officious security cordon.

...

That will probably not be the case in India, where its voluble media — especially its many English language 24-hour cable news networks and newspapers — have the resources and the interest to throw the proverbial full court press at Palin ... Palin and her speechwriters will have to be prepared for the intensity of the media glare that falls on public figures in India.

http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/02/24/what-to-expect-when-sarah-palin-goes-to-india/

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Is it too much to hope that she stays there?

[peejay 327]

All the Indian press is interested in is whether Palin will cut a deal for more visas for Indians. What else would they be interested in?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

All the Indian press is interested in is whether Palin will cut a deal for more visas for Indians. What else would they be interested in?

I think Indians will realize easily that an entertainer has no authority to cut any such deal. Sarah, on the other hand...

[Ban Hammer 13,407]

All the Indian press is interested in is whether Palin will cut a deal for more visas for Indians. What else would they be interested in?

cleavage.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

cleavage.

[peejay 327]

I think Indians will realize easily that an entertainer has no authority to cut any such deal. Sarah, on the other hand...

They don't know that. All they know is that she is a politician and was on the ticket for VP in 2008. Along with wild rumors she might run again. That puts her a step up from the casual tourist.

[^_^ 5,021]

All the Indian press is interested in is whether Palin will cut a deal for more visas for Indians. What else would they be interested in?

The Indian press will almost certainly try to trip her up with some obscure foreign policy question. There are some hardcore lefties in the english-language indian media who have deep links with their peers in the US.