By This Logic, Any East Coast Mayor Could Be John McCain’s VP

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If you’ve read any coverage of Sarah Palin’s interview with ABC, you know that she is continuing to insist she has foreign policy credibility because you can “see” Russia from her state. Mike Tomasky takes the idea for a test run.

“Russia,” as a political entity, isn’t a bunch of rocks in Siberia. It’s Moscow. We don’t dispute that, right? Right.

So let’s do a little experiment. How close is Juneau, Alaska’s capital, to Moscow? It’s 4,559.6 miles. Meanwhile, how close is, say, Boston, the capital of Massachusetts, to Moscow? It’s 4,498.8 miles. (Distances calculated using this site.)

So there you have it. Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick is more geographically qualified to speak of matters Russian than Palin is. I wish someone would make this into a commercial. They’d never trot this argument out again.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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