Paraguay's president says he turned down offer to meet Palin Steve Clemons

Published: Friday September 26, 2008





Print This Email This Apparently not everyone wants to have their photograph taken with Sarah Palin.



Paraguay President Fernando Lugo, while attending both the UN General Assembly meetings and the Clinton Global Initiative, shared with friends over dinner some of the other meetings he had been having in New York.



After enumerating the various heads of state he'd met with, the room went silent and then laughed a bit when he confided that he was approached about meeting with GOP Vice Presidential candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.



President Lugo said he turned the meeting down.



The 57-year-old left-leaning former Catholic bishop known locally as "bishop of the poor," was elected to office in April. His swearing in marked the first time in Paraguay's history since the country gained independence that an opposition party turned over power peacefully to a candidate elected from the other party.



Lugo has also refused his presidential salary, saying it "belongs to more humble people." He joined the priesthood in 1977 and was ordained a bishop in 1994 before resigning in 2006 to run for office.



-- Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note, and writes frequently about foreign policy.



