A lot of people have been drawing comparisons between Palin and Bush - she may not know much about all the details of being President, but she's really the kind of person you'd like to have a beer with, or shoot a moose with. Probably both.

Somebody should make a bumper sticker that says: Sarah Palin: You can put lipstick on George W. Bush, but she's still going to be George W. Bush.

"She basically handles herself fine."

I don't know about that. Even the knee jerk crowd at the Corner thinks she did a crappy job. Naturally, they attribute much of this to ABC's "editing" and Gibson's "condescension," but still.

It might be damaging if the Bush Doctrine was actually defined as one policy, but it has been used to define the use of the military and its interests (such as missle defense) in a unilateral way or treat states that harbor terrorists as terrorists themselves (The Taliban), not just preemptive war. Charlie's question was essentially to ask her what am I thinking by using this term.

It's damaging Jenga because she didn't even know enough to do what you just did. If she were capable on foreign policy, and if you are right, shouldn't she have given the lay out of the land as you just did and the answered with her talking points rather than just ignoring the quesiton, and launching into the talking points? You are conjecturing about what Gibson's question meant, but we know one thing for certain- she didn't seem to know what you just wrote. If she did, she would have mentioned it.

Sad that she can't tell you what the Bush Doctrine is, but she happily sent her son off to put his life on the line for it.

I thought she came off as just awful, and not just because she is clearly far more ignorant of foreign policy than Bush was in 2000. She just came off as this awful, pinched, hectoring school teacher with a grating accent. Surely the more people see her in settings like this the less they will like her.

I mean, have a beer with Sarah Palin? Please!

Gibson certainly did a lousy job of explaining what the Bush Doctrine is, talking about "a preemptive strike against any country that we think is going to attack us". The word is supposed to be "preventive", not "preemptive", and the point is that we think the country may attack us some day, not that they're just about to.

The way he phrased it, it sounded like Bush invented the idea of attacking countries that are just about to launch attacks on us, and that all previous presidents, along with present-day Democrats, were and are opposed to that.

That, my friends, is the definition of an empty suit.

And this, "We must not hesitate to make those tough decisions..."

Unfortunately for these people, tough is a substitute for right and hesitation is a substitute for think.

Since Charlie didn't define it a broad answer is not a bad one. All of the possible parts of what one interprets to be the Bush doctrine are focused against islamic extremism whether its missle defense against a state like Iran, preemptive war, or the war against the Taliban. Its only when you nail down what you think the "Bush doctrine" to be that you get a specific answer, which is what Gibson then did, but I not sure even Gibson knows that there are multiple meanings.

Since Charlie didn't define it, a broad answer is not a bad one. All of the possible parts of what one interprets to be the Bush doctrine are focused against islamic extremism whether its missle defense against a state like Iran, preemptive war, or the war against the Taliban. Its only when you nail down what you think the "Bush doctrine" to be that you get a specific answer, which is what Gibson then did, but I am not sure even Gibson knows that there are multiple meanings.

Let's put it this way, if Obama had given that interview, there would be so many "gaffes", Sean Hannity's head would explode. It was a joke. She is so unbelievably unprepared to be President. I can't even imagine the wars that would be going on in her White House as different advisers struggled to be the last person to talk to her before making a major decision. This is an embarrassment to our country. I never thought I'd see the politician about whom I could say "I long for the days of George W. Bush's clear-eyed analysis."

Gibson certainly did a lousy job of explaining what the Bush Doctrine is, talking about "a preemptive strike against any country that we think is going to attack us". The word is supposed to be "preventive", not "preemptive", and the point is that we think the country may attack us some day, not that they're just about to.

Indeed he did, but I think that's part of the point here as well: Palin didn't pick up on the word preemptive at all. She clearly had no idea what Gibson was referring to.

People say she's a quick study. Last night's interview doesn't back that up.

FWIW, put me in the camp of folks who don't think this will matter much. The people voting for McCain/Palin don't care if Palin can tie her shoes, as long as she can do the evangelical two-step. In that regard, her wishy-washy answer on "God's will" might do more damage with the base.

What I find remarkable is that even though Palin shows remarkable ignorance, she still seems to have better judgment than Bush or McCain. She supported preemptive not preventative war and back when she was interviewed about the surge she wanted to know there was an exit plan.

Ignorance can be fixed, but McCain's poor judgment is unlikely to change.

Pres. McCain Felled By (heart attack, stroke, fell in bath tub?): Palin President!

I just read that North Korea's dictator has had a stroke. This reminds me of a seriously neglected implication of the Palin pick: McCain is 70 and could easily be incapacitated by any number of old age misfortunes. Meaning that in Palin we could more likely than usual be looking at our future president -- dumber (for the job) even than Bush. Achhhhhhh!

All we know about Palin at this point is that she is governor of a state that doesn't have a million people (Mayor Palin?) -- that has six men for every woman -- that has more the quality of an frontier outpost than civilization (don't leave home without your bear spray). Oh, and she avoids interviews.

Greg,

Palin's "problem" is that she does resort to what makes sense to her. And what makes sense to her is what American's have held as their standard for at least 100 years. Bush was radical and over-turned our sensible history, but most people still have as their gut reaction, the sensible response that typified American action throughout the 20th century. That is why she gave the "wrong" answer so many times.

The problem is... she probably doesn't know about or care for these issues at all and will thus listen to whatever crazy neocon advisers McCain has left in place after he dies. So regardless of what she says in these interviews, the important thing to keep in mind is the shadowy neocons will be making foreign policy in a Palin presidency.

Jake, why would she want to take issue with Gibson? He allowed her to present the issue as strong Republicans being willing to protect you when those wimpy Democrats refuse to.

i feel that david gergen's commentary on cnn last night was an outrage, and he should be called out on it, as exactly the kind of job the mainstream media is doing in this election.
after palin's interview, in which she clearly did not know what the bush doctrine was, david gergen, who, among a number of other positions, was advisor to bill clinton, professor of public service at harvard's kennedy school of government and is editor-at-large for us news.....said that it was very reasonable that she didnt know what the bush doctrine is, because most ordinary people dont know what it is either.
when he said that, i felt that there was no longer any reason to watch cnn.
if a person of his supposed integrity and credentials, feels that it is acceptable in this critical time, to have someone running for vice president who is excused from knowing anything more than the average person on the street about foreign policy, then it says everything about gergen's wisdom and patriotism.
his comment revealed everything about the mainstream media, about the standards by which she is being held accountable.
listening to sarah palin last night, i realized that i knew more than she did in response to the questions....and that cant be good at all...because i know little, and clearly, she knows less.
but i agree, with jake, above. it wont make a bit of difference. she has the same brazen, misguided, toxic, "can-do" attitude of george bush.
apparently, whenever you cant answer a question, cry out ,"hellbent islamic terrorists" and you dont need to know anything beyond that.
everytime, she ingratiated herself to charlie gibson, winking and saying "charlie," it looked like he was positively recoiling.
it made me recoil.....if you cant dazzle them with brilliance..........
and also, this morning, ed koch was being interviewed on cnn...and the female moderator was so disrespectful to him during the interview that she deserved to be fired.
it is a sad and toxic picture that all of this appears to be going unchecked.
i feel that a country of such richness and potential, is being plummeted into the dark ages.
it is incredibly distressing.

Sara Pailin displays extreme stuidity that should embarrass Americans.She should be hidden somewhere where nobody can associating with the American people

A Republican not familiar with the Bush doctrine. How refreshing. We need more of them :-)

I think Gov. Palin came off as a professionally put together collection of sound bites (Sound Bite Sarah, anyone?). Which, of course plays to her base ("boy, she looks confident and sensible up there!"), and frustrates the rest of us, because it encourages the commentariat to focus on style rather than substance (describing style is easy; dissecting substance, or asserting that there just wasn't enough "there" there is hard).

To quote Brad DeLong, "why oh why can't we have a better press corps?" (http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/better_press_corps/index.html)

Sam: I realize you're jokimg. Sadly, it's not all that funny, because not knowing the name doesn't make the policy inaccessible; quite the opposite. After all, those who forget the past are doomed to something something ...

The word IS preemptive, and NOT preventive. The idea of a preventive war is the height of the absurd. If you start a war you cannot be preventing it, and that is not what the doctrine is about. It is about acting first to ward off an imminent threat, not just anything that might arise at some time in the future. But it's also about treating states that harbor terrorist the same as actual sponsors of terrorism. So there is some vagueness about what it is exactly. Still, her performance was not great -- but please don't forget what an amateur Obama himself sounds like when talking about foreign affairs. There's no one running on either side who sounds especially educated in these matters.

Had Obama answered the questions the way Palin did, he would be called all kinds of idiots today. Americans are chosing to be ignorant just as Obama said, this race is not about right for this country, it's about a smart AA male is being compared to a man that keep using his pow status and a women that has already used her position to break the law, but because he is only half white, Americans rather put idiots in the whitehouse rather than a smart American just because of the color of his skin.

I didn't see the interview, but it sounded like he was a douchebag. I don't think it was a "friendly" interview. Supposedly she actually did quite well in terms of poise/composure, but clearly hasn't been "briefed" on all issues. She danced around some of the questions (but I hear danced well). Here's the thing: No governor in the country is likely 100% up-to-speed on all issues presidential. So she's no different than anyone else in that manner. She has a bit more to learn, that's all. Supposedly he spent most of the interview on international affairs, which is a joke. No governor has experience with that.

What about the hilarious thing about Biden? Apparently he says stupid things on a regular basis. A day or two ago he started talking, on the record, about how Hilary probably would have been a better pick for VP, because she has just as much experience as he does, and would have helped with the women vote. LMAO And there was another quote by him recently at some charity benefit for disabled people or something. And he was talking about one who I guess was a heroic kind of person or something. So he tells the guy to "stand up to be recognized". He was paraplegic. LLLMMMMAAAAOOOO. Love it. He's a moron.

"She danced around some of the questions (but I hear danced well)."

You heard wrong. Reading the transcript doesn't do it justice. You have to see the blank look on her face as she tries to think of what a "Bush Doctrine" might be. Her answer to most questions was to fill in whatever soundbite she'd been told to memorize, no matter whether it made sense or not. The repetition of "second-guess" should be considered a classic, but that would only be true if most Americans care whether their leaders actually know anything or not.

Gibson showed his inside the beltway mentality, by believeing he alone knew what the Bush doctrine is. Palin was smart to have him clarify because their are sevaral policies that have been called the Bush Doctrine, all of which are media creation. Charles Krauthammer actually declared the first Bush Doctrine and published an article long before the media came up with their version, it had to do with missile defense, not terrorist attacks.

In fact what the media term the Bush Doctrine was actually the Daniel Webster doctrine back in the 1800s.