From Barbara Walters and the rest of the thinly veiled leftist media to the Obama campaign and commenters on blogs… it seems liberals have found their issue to pound on Sarah Palin about today. Her response to this question: “Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?”
As I’ve said in comments here and a blog post. That’s not a “yes” or “no” question nor is it even specific enough in its premise for a more lengthy response. It clearly was a “gotcha” attempt where no possible answer was correct because the question itself was flawed. The left wants to say the Governor Palin was clueless in regards to the Bush Doctrine because she asked Charlie Gibson “in what respect?” All they are doing, Barbara Walters included, is proving that Governor Palin is smarter than they are… or at least more honest.
Bill Dyer at Townhall.com takes the question to task and disassembles the Bush Doctrine so I don’t have to try. Read the whole thing and become informed on the topic, something Ms. Walters, Charlie Gibson, or the liberal left will certainly refuse to do. Maybe for their benefit we can just skip to the conclusion… surely they can be bothered to at least read that:
Anyone who criticizes Sarah Palin, then, for asking Charlie Gibson to be more specific about the “Bush Doctrine” is trying to mislead you in at least two ways:
- They’re pretending that the term “Bush Doctrine” has a single clear, unambiguous meaning that anyone who follows national affairs ought to have immediately recognized. It doesn’t, as I think this post and the materials I’ve linked here more than adequately establish.
- They’re pretending that because Gov. Palin didn’t immediately try to guess which of several plausible meanings Gibson meant to give that term, but instead asked for clarification, she therefore must have been unprepared to discuss any of them. Gov. Palin herself disproved that premise, because upon receiving the requested clarification, she immediately responded with clarity and self-assurance.
If they had bothered to look, even the Wikipedia could have cured Josh Marshall, Greg Sargent, or Andrew Sullivan of their illusion that there’s a single, simple meaning to the term “Bush Doctrine.” When it comes to any discussion of Gov. Sarah Palin, these folks have shown us yet again that they just can’t be trusted to get their basic facts right.
UPDATE: Check out Charles Krauthammer’s column. Dr. Krauthammer is the one who actually coined the term “Bush Doctrine”. He has been no huge supporter of Sarah Palin as the VP Nominee, but he takes Charlie Gibson to task on the question. The gaffe was Gibson’s, not hers. Anyone know Barbara Walters’ e-mail address? I’d like to send her a link to this story… maybe she’ll think Dr. Krauthammer is stupid too.
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