Bill Clinton: I understand exactly why American voters think that Sarah Palin is hot



Republican vice presidential candidate is 'hot', former president Bill Clinton has admitted.

'I come from Arkansas, I get why she's hot out there,' Clinton said.



'People look at her, and they say, "All those kids. Something that happens in everybody's family. I'm glad she loves her daughter and she's not ashamed of her. Glad that girl's going around with her boyfriend. Glad they're going to get married".'

Clinton also claimed that voters liked the fact Palin could cope with her child suffering from Down's syndrome.

Hot stuff: U.S. Republican vice-presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin and her family members. Clockwise, starting with Governor Palin at centre, husband Todd, daughter Bristol, daughter Piper, daughter Willow and son Track

He said voters would think: 'I like that little Down's syndrome kid. One of them lives down the street. They're wonderful children. They're wonderful people.



'And I like the idea that this guy does those long-distance races. Stayed in the race for 500 miles with a broken arm. My kind of guy."







Palin, the governor of Alaska, became an overnight star when Republican presidential candidate John McCain tapped her for his running mate.



Her family, including her Down's syndrome baby, Trig, her pregnant 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, and her husband, Todd, four-time winner of the 2,000-mile Iron Dog snowmobile race, have garnered intense media interest.

'I get this,' Clinton said. 'My view is ... why say, ever, anything bad about a person? Why don't we like them and celebrate them and be happy for her elevation to the ticket?



Rival: Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama and former U.S. president Bill Clinton appear together in New York earlier this month

'And just say that she was a good choice for him and we disagree with them?'

Meanwhile, Mrs Palin yesterday met her first world leaders.



It was a tightly controlled crash course on foreign policy for the first-term Alaska governor, who has been outside North America just once.



Palin sat down with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.



The private conversation and public pictures were meant to pad her resume for voters concerned about her lack of experience in world affairs.

'I found her quite a capable woman,' Karzai said later. 'She asked the right questions on Afghanistan.'



The self-described 'hockey mom' also asked former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for insights on Georgia, Russia, China and Iran, and she'll see more leaders Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings.

Sit-down chat: Mrs Palin meets former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, three hours behind Palin in seeing Karzai, found herself overshadowed for a day as she made her own rounds.



Senator John McCain's presidential campaign has shielded Palin for weeks from spontaneous questions from voters and reporters, and went to striking lengths Tuesday to maintain that distance as Palin made her diplomatic debut.



The Republican campaign, applying more restrictive rules on access than even President George W. Bush uses in the White House, banned reporters from the start of the meetings, so as not to risk a question being asked of Palin.



McCain aides relented after news organizations objected and CNN, which was supplying TV footage to a variety of networks, decided to pull its TV crew from Palin's meeting with Karzai.

Easy tiger: Sarah Palin shakes hands with Kissinger after a meeting at his Park Avenue offices in New York

Palin is studying foreign policy ahead of her one debate with Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden, a senator with deep credentials on that front.



More broadly, the Republican ticket is trying to counter questions exploited by Democrats about her qualifications to serve as vice president and step into the presidency at a moment's notice if necessary.



There was no chance of putting such questions to rest with photo opportunities Tuesday.



But Palin, who got a passport only last year, no longer has to own up to a blank slate when asked about heads of state she has met.



She also got her first intelligence briefing Tuesday, over two hours long.



Karzai generated light laughter when he told an audience at the Asia Society that, in addition to Rice and Norway's prime minister, he had seen Palin on Tuesday.



Thomas Freston, a member of the society's board, drew loud applause and laughter when he responded: 'You're probably the only person in the room who's met Gov. Palin.'



Randy Scheunemann, a longtime McCain aide on foreign policy, was close at hand during her meetings. Another adviser, Stephen Biegun, also accompanied her at each meeting and briefed reporters later.

High-powered: Mrs Palin moved on to a meeting with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan

Karzai and Palin discussed security problems in Afghanistan, including cross-border insurgencies. They also talked about the need for more U.S. troops there, which both McCain and Democrat Barack Obama say is necessary, Biegun said.



With both Karzai and Uribe, Palin discussed the importance of energy security. With Uribe, the conversation also touched on the proposed U.S.-Colombian Free Trade

Agreement that McCain and Palin support but Obama opposes.



Her meeting with Kissinger, which lasted more than an hour, covered a range of national security and foreign policy issues, specifically Russia, Iran and China, Biegun said.



'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.



As for the foreign leaders, Colombia's foreign minister, Jaime Bermudez, said that Palin and Uribe discussed the Bush administration's free trade agreement with Colombia, which McCain supports but Democrats in Congress have refused to bring to a vote.



'The crisis on Wall Street was also discussed,' Bermudez said. 'She knows the topic well.'



Uribe's press secretary, Cesar Mauricio Velasquez, revealed the meeting lasted for 25 minutes and also touched on Colombian security and the global campaign against terrorists.



'The conversation was interesting, opportune and relaxed,' he said.



Before that, Palin met Karzai for a half hour. The two chatted about his son Mirwais in remarks overheard by a CNN producer before leaving the room. Karzai told her the name means Light of the House, as she nodded.

Who are you again? Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, left, meets Colombian President Alvaro Uribe

At the next two meetings, first with Uribe and then with Kissinger, reporters were let in for a few seconds as each session began. With Kissinger, Palin could be heard discussing the situation in Georgia.



'You're going to give me more insight on that also,' Palin told Kissinger. They met for more than an hour. 'It was great,' she said later before turning to get into her sport utility vehicle.



Before Palin's first meeting of the day, with Karzai, campaign aides told reporters in the press pool that followed her that they could not go into meetings where photographers and a video camera crew would be let in for pictures.



Bush and members of Congress routinely allow reporters to attend photo opportunities along with photographers, and the reporters sometimes are able to ask questions at the beginning of private meetings before they are ushered out.



At least two news organisations, including AP, objected to the exclusion of reporters and were told that the decision to have a 'photo spray' only was not subject to discussion.



After aides backed away from that, campaign spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said the reporter ban was a 'miscommunication'.



On Wednesday, McCain and Palin are expected to meet jointly with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko.



Palin is then to meet separately with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.



Palin, 44, has been to neighbouring Canada and to Mexico, and made a brief trip to Kuwait and Germany to see Alaska National Guard troops.

