Palin: When softball interviews go wrong

Charlie did his part. He asked an easy, non-taxing question during a section on foreign policy, Sarah Palin's worst area of expertise. Oh sure, we'll get to the part where she wants to lock us into Russian and Israeli proxy wars, but those weren't actual mistakes, just full on McCain camp beliefs.

The question was "Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?" Now this is a little hard on its face, the Bush doctrine has meant two different things over the years: treat any country that harbors terrorists as a terrorist state and, our favorite, preemptive war against states that may pose a threat somewhere down the line. When asked what she interpreted it as, Palin said "His world view" an answer so vague as to belabor all thought. Thanks, we were looking to be a tad more specific than every thought Bush ever had on the world.

As she rambled through a rehearsed answer of non-specific pablum about terror, mistakes, elections, not dancing anywhere near the point, Gibson finally stepped in to say "No, the preemptive war thing". Palin then set the standard of retaliation as being under imminent/immediate threat, a much higher standard than the Bush/McCain "if we think somethin's gonna happen in while", though one could also make the case that the war for Iraq was pitched as one of immediate threat. In any event she'll probably have to clarify that the accidentally sane thing she said is not the McCain policy. And that she actually knows what the Bush Doctrine is.

Now to the proxy war thing. Yeah, it's no surprise that she wants us to support Israeli preemptive strikes and war with Iran and letting Georgia into NATO for the expressed purpose of going to war with Russia if they attack again, these are John McCain's ideas. Moreover, when talking about Russia, John McCain is a frothing lunatic who wants to kick Russia out of every IGO organization they're in and choke the Volga with our dead. McCain also sent Lieberman and AIPAC to brief Palin on Israel, which is nice if you think US foreign policy should be run with the express goal of attaining Israeli foreign policy goals. So it's no surprise that she wants us to back and support Israel no matter what they do with Iran.

A little more surprising is she doesn't seem to know any more than the phrase "I don't think that we should second guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves and for their security", a phrase that's a tad troublesome when you pair it up with a pledge to back and support them no matter what. But she repeated that phrase four times in a row to four questions from Gibson. They should have taught her a second phrase. But that's where we are, the obviously coached answer can be repeated ad nauseum as the pat answer for every question and the interviewer will eventually break down, quit asking about the subject, and politely refuse to mention that all she knows is the same rote sentence repetition.

But the hits just keep on coming. Not content to just show us all the lovely new wars she'd like to get us in and the awesome new sentences she was taught by the prep team, plus the additional not understanding basic concepts you pledge to support and continue, Sarah Palin decided to traipse into the fevered swamps only reserved for Dick Cheney nowadays. Iraq/911 conflagration! In giving a speech to the Iraq-bound brigade that included her son she included the bon-mot that they should "defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans." That's nice, but they're going to Iraq. They just get a sectarian conflict with occasional guest appearances from terrorist groups. I thought we were done with this halfwit shit, but no, I guess we get to do another round of the 'Iraq/911' mambo.

I'm too annoyed to even get in to all the bullshit about Palin summing up her wealth of foreign policy experience as being able to see an uninhabited part of Russia from an uninhabited part of Alaska and going on a family trip to Canada. Nor the part about her foreign policy experience being "energy", as if being a governor for less than two years of an oil producing state makes you either an energy expert or an expert on the geopolitical ramifications of the the energy markets. It doesn't, despite John McCain's bizarre claims that you are the most experienced person on energy in the US. You aren't even the most experienced governor on energy. Or the part where she doesn't understand McCain's policy on Pakistan and seemingly supports Obama's.

Part two is tonight. I'm guessing proxy war with Venezuela and her wealth of Chinese foreign policy experience derived from ordering General Tso's twice a month for lunch and watching the Olympics alot will be the topics of discussion.