Kevin Drum on Palin Interview

I have finally gotten to a computer after our family's flight from Hurricane Ike (all are safe and well) and perused the responses to GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin's interview with Charles Gibson of ABC. The winner for me is Kevin Drum of Mother Jones.

Underprepared hardly begins to describe her. It was late last night and I didn't explain in any detail why I found her Charlie Gibson interview so embarrassing, but the answer is simple: she wasn't even able to regurgitate the usual high school-level talking points that politicians thrive on. It was more like kindergarten level talking points.

Palin was clearly completely out of her depth from having no clue about the Bush Doctrine to cavalierly endorsing admission to NATO for Georgia (meaning a shooting war with Russia) to her nonsensical response on Iran and Israel. I was embarassed for her and for the rest of us for having to watch her flounder. I was also disturbed at the apparent combination of complete self-assurance and utter incompetence as pointed out by James Fallows of The Atlantic and referenced here below by Richard Holcomb.

Haven't we had enough glib certitude from right-wing amateurs?

On that point, I was very angry at John McCain for selecting an obvious neophyte for the sake of politics. It is encouraging to see more mainstream media sources spell out in pointed terms the many and continued lies of the McCain campaign. The biggest lie of all may be the slogan "Country First." Here's hoping the McCain campaign's dishonesty graduates to "campaign narrative." The main positive that I see in the Palin interview is that it may be another nudge in that direction.

--Ballard Burgher