Palin finally agreed to appear before the press. She embarrassed herself by not knowing what the "Bush Doctrine" is. The use of pre-emptive war with no imminent threat (the "Bush Doctrine") has been a major focus of our foreign policy debates for years now, and Palin didn't even know what it was.
After a brief deer-in-the-headlights moment, she almost tricked Charlie into telling her what it was, though.
[UPDATE: Crazy person Charles Krauthammer argues that it's unfair to criticize Palin over this, since foreign policy debates often argue over the precise doctrine of the "Bush Doctrine." Krauthammer argues that there are four different interpretations of the phrase (none of which he identifies). But this misses the point, since Palin was clueless as to all of them. She nodded her head and guessed that "Bush Doctrine" meant Bush's "world view." She was simply clueless.]
Charlie Gibson also embarrassed himself with some pretty bad reading comprehension. Palin had not explicitly said that Iraq was "a task that is from God." Instead, she had asked a gathering of people to pray that it was "a task that is from God." Watch the video yourself:
That being said, and despite her protestations to Gibson that "I would never presume to know God’s will," I think that it's important to point out that she also said at that same church gathering that it was "God's will" that Alaska build a natural gas pipeline.
She also made a big blunder when talking about energy policy. She said this: "…I've been working on for these years as the governor of this state that produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy..."
However, that is just plain wrong. According ot the Department of Energy, Alaska produces 3.5% of the country's total domestic energy. Palin was most likely referring to domestic crude oil production, of which Alaska provides 18.5%. I'm really sick of Palin equating "energy" with "domestic oil production."
UPDATE: Rep. Zack Wamp (R-TN) damns Palin with faint praise:
Governor Palin is confident, smart, disciplined and while not yet totally prepared on the issues, she clearly is getting there....The country likes her so she will get a pass or two. If she holds up beyond that, she could be a transformative woman in American history. If not, we will all be disappointed.
UPDATE II: Apparently Charles Gibson didn't show her enough "deference," so Palin is doing her next interview with college dropout Sean Hannity.
UPDATE III: The major news networks apparently hold Palin to a low standard. Hey, if some random guy on the street doesn't understand modern foreign policy debates, why should we expect the potential leader of the free world to know?
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