Most post-Palin/Gibson-interview chatter seems to say that Palin held her own, her one point of hesitation being on the subject of "the Bush doctrine." Charles Krauthammer notes that Charlie Gibson was the one who got it wrong, not Ms. Palin. Krauthammer's last paragraph makes the whole editorial worth reading:
"Yes, Sarah Palin didn't know what [the Bush doctrine] is. But neither does Charlie Gibson. And at least she didn't pretend to know -- while he looked down his nose and over his glasses with weary disdain, sighing and "sounding like an impatient teacher," as the Times noted. In doing so, he captured perfectly the establishment snobbery and intellectual condescension that has characterized the chattering classes' reaction to the mother of five who presumes to play on their stage."
Follow up: An hour or so after posting the above link to Krauthammer's editorial, I heard an NPR analysis of Palin's reply to Gibson's question about "the Bush doctrine." And they followed the same script -- that Palin didn't know what Gibson was asking for until he explained what "the Bush doctrine" is/was. I mention this, and the above, not in defense of Palin but as an example of how news cycles work and how little actual research is done (sometimes) by the media. Krauthammer was the first to use the phrase "Bush doctrine" and knows better than anyone what it means -- and that there have been four different iterations of that phrase since 9/11. But no one mentions "four" in the news reports. Instead of trying to trip Palin up, Gibson should have stated which version of "the Bush doctrine" he was asking about. And if Palin had been well-prepared, she should have asked, "Which version?" -- and listed the four that Krauthammer lays out.
"Yes, Sarah Palin didn't know what [the Bush doctrine] is. But neither does Charlie Gibson. And at least she didn't pretend to know -- while he looked down his nose and over his glasses with weary disdain, sighing and "sounding like an impatient teacher," as the Times noted. In doing so, he captured perfectly the establishment snobbery and intellectual condescension that has characterized the chattering classes' reaction to the mother of five who presumes to play on their stage."
Follow up: An hour or so after posting the above link to Krauthammer's editorial, I heard an NPR analysis of Palin's reply to Gibson's question about "the Bush doctrine." And they followed the same script -- that Palin didn't know what Gibson was asking for until he explained what "the Bush doctrine" is/was. I mention this, and the above, not in defense of Palin but as an example of how news cycles work and how little actual research is done (sometimes) by the media. Krauthammer was the first to use the phrase "Bush doctrine" and knows better than anyone what it means -- and that there have been four different iterations of that phrase since 9/11. But no one mentions "four" in the news reports. Instead of trying to trip Palin up, Gibson should have stated which version of "the Bush doctrine" he was asking about. And if Palin had been well-prepared, she should have asked, "Which version?" -- and listed the four that Krauthammer lays out.
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