Palin and Gibson

GIBSON: Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?

PALIN: In what respect, Charlie?

GIBSON: The Bush -- well, what do you -- what do you interpret it to be?

PALIN: His world view.



Palin doesn't know what the Bush doctrine is. A bit ironic, considering she could be taking his place in the White House and could have to decide whether to continue or break away from its tenets, and especially given the fact that the war she just shipped a son off to was born directly of this doctrine.

Is it really so bad that she didn't know what Charlie Gibson was talking about? Well, if you're a blogger, maybe not. Tracie at Jezebel tried to go a little easy on her for that: "Palin didn't even know what the Bush Doctrine was! (To be fair, neither did I, but I'm not looking to run this country.)"

And at Slate, Fred Kaplan gave her a little bit of credit, "Her initial response—"In what respect, Charlie?"—was a fair point. So many Bush doctrines have been promulgated, proved wrong, and abandoned without comment."

I don't think Palin was asking "In what respect, Charlie?" because she was familiar with too many subtly varied versions of the Bush doctrine. I think she asked because she hadn't read or heard of it before in her life.


Here's the problem with the gaffe. The McCain-Palin camp is arguing that she IS in touch with America--even though life in Alaska is removed and different from life in the lower 48--enough to know what our values are, enough to fix our problems. She's right there with us! In our corner, on our side, no, better--she's one of us!

Their second big argument is that living sort of near Russia has given her foreign policy experience. They want us to believe that she's worldly and capable enough to run things.

If we are to trust someone with no experience to run things, we expect them to at least be educated. You know, applying for jobs, a degree can stand in for years of experience or vice-versa. (And Obama might have a thin resume, but hey, the dude graduated from Harvard Law. And even our current president holds a Harvard MBA. Palin, on the other hand, has a measly little BA in Journalism. I don't think a college education is anything to sneeze at, but jeeze, I've got TWO degrees, and know more about foreign policy than Palin. Am I ready to maybe lead the country? HELL NO....but I'd probably do it better than Palin. Anyway.)

Palin's Bush doctrine goof tells us something that is utterly terrifying. The woman doesn't read the newspapers. Where has she been for the last eight years? I did a quick search on Lexis Nexis for "Bush doctrine" for the last two years alone, and turned up ONE THOUSAND HITS.

To me, this says that Palin, who, we can infer, does not read the papers, is not in touch with what's happening in Washington or with DC's machinations abroad. It's also indicative of a character flaw that I think is fatal in a potential President or VP: a certain apathy to the world, to knowledge and learning. No one expects a president to be an expert on everything, but we do expect them to learn as much as they can and take things into careful consideration, and make decisions after lots of reading and mulling. Palin doesn't value expanding her worldview, and she doesn't read the newspapers...

You know who else didn't really read the papers himself? GEORGE W BUSH!

"I glance at the headlines, just to get kind of a flavor," he told Brit Hume of Fox News"
(from a 2003 Slate article.)