Sarah Palin struggles through another interview, this time with friends

Sarah Palin struggles through another interview, this time with friends
Sheldon Alberts - National Post Canada
September 18, 2008

WASHINGTON • Ever since Sarah Palin sat down with ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson last week, Republicans have complained that the venerable newsman was unforgivably condescending and aloof.

Gibson’s sin? Asking Palin, insistently, whether she supported and could describe “the Bush doctrine.” The Alaska governor simply couldn’t answer.

“In what respect, Charlie?”

Gibson: “What do you interpret it to be?”

Palin: “His world view?”

Umm, okay.

Conservative commentators – notably syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer – rushed to Palin’s defence. Krauthammer pointed out there have been “four distinct meanings” of the Bush doctrine.

They include America’s willingness to unilaterally withdraw from international treaties, the president’s post-9/11 ‘with-us-or-against-us’ ultimatum to nations harbouring terrorists, the use of pre-emptive war to protect the United States from imminent threats, and his second-term ‘freedom’ agenda.

Krauthammer chastised Gibson for practicing “gotcha” journalism and said the anchor “captured perfectly the establishment snobbery and intellectual condescension” elitists feel toward Palin.

Or, maybe, Gibson was just asking...

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Sarah Palin struggles through another interview, this time with friends