The Palin Interview: Twitter Goes Crazy

Go Charlie Gibson! Great interview of Sarah Palin last night — smart, pointed, and damn effective — it just shows what you can get out of someone completely unprepared to be president by being deferential and respectful. The takeaway: She didn't know what the Bush Doctrine was, she was unfamiliar with the concept of cross-border incursions into Pakistan from Afghanistan, and she's so excited for war with Russia that she never bothered to learn the facts about Georgia. Also, she's been to Canada and Mexico! I haven't been to Mexico, but otherwise I think I'm pretty qualified to be vice-president.

Twitter went bananas during the interview last night (and if you doubt me, consider just how many times the phrase "Bush Doctrine" suddenly came up). Here are some of the more astute observations and/or funny punch lines:

@jessicacoen Palin SO didn't know what the Bush Doctrine was.

@komejo: Sarah Palin didn't know about the Bush Doctrine, but she agrees with it

@anamariecox How do you fuck up "BUSH DOCTRINE"? Not that complicated: WE SHOOT 1st. Surely the wolves she hunts from the air are familiar w/ the concept

@doctorandree: Palin is a blank slate! Even *I* know what the Bush Doctrine is! Sheesh!

@mikemadden What will the Palin doctrine be? "We have the right to preemptive strikes against wolves and librarians"?

@rachelsklar HOW DARE YOU MOCK SARAH PALIN FOR NOT KNOWING ABOUT THE BUSH DOCTRINE!?! THAT'S SEXIST!!!!!

Story continues below

advertisement

@HowardKurtz Charlie got the job done. No question about it. He asked the questions we all wanted to ask. And this is just the first 1/3

@jayrosen_nyu @Norm Ornsteinwatched: "Utter inexperience and utter arrogance is about the worst possible combination I can imagine." http://is.gd/2pna

@bnmeeks: And, god forbid, don't ask her to explain the Bush Doctrine, the very guts of what has demolished America's world reputation; she can't.

@rachelsklar OMG can you imagine if Couric had done the interview? LEG-OFF!!!

@superfemme: Hearing that Palin doesn't know Bush Doctrine. How can she speak with such convinction yet know so little?

@rhh Am starting to appreciate Rove's genius for realizing early that McCain had to be kept out of the WH at all costs.

@rachelsklar WHERE IS HER FLAG PIN

@mikemadden Watching Palin on ABC, I'm a little surprised she never ordered the Alaska Natl Guard to invade Canada.

@dceiver PALIN ON ABC: What about your trip to Ireland? Your plane refueled there! With important foreign policy oils!

@rachelsklar Thought on Palin intvu: If she's supposedly been learning at the feet of the master, what does that say about the master?

@gperez: I'd really like to make a bumper sticker for Joe Biden that says "Ask ME about the Bush Doctrine."

Related:
Fake Sarah Palin [Twitter.com/fakesarahpalin]

Comments

[honeydiva]

my favorite word- sad.

no one in their "right mind" could deny this woman is not vp material.

[krocklin]

Moose in the headlights.

[itsok]

Qoute from Deepak Chopra "Palin’s message to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision

Look at what she stands for:

* Small town values — a nostaligic return to simpler times disguises a denial of America’s global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.
* Ignorance of world affairs — a repudiation of the need to repair America’s image abroad.
* Family values — a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don’t need to be needed.
* Rigid stands on guns and abortion — a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
* Patriotism — the usual fallback in a failed war.
* ”Reform” — an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn’t fit your ideology.

Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from “us” pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of “I’m all right, Jack,” and “Why change? Everything’s OK as it is.” The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time."

[lamarguerite]

How about fake Sarah Palin blog? whatssarah­thinking.c­om :) If you want to know what Sarah Palin is really thinking.

[dmsdzinr]

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I have actually heard talk that some women (GEE, do you think they might be Republicans?) feel that Charlie Gibson wasn't nice enough to Palin. So let this AIRHEAD spew any inane answer like she actually knows what she is talking about, without ANY challenge? Gibson would have had NO issues asking the same questions to a MAN. My problem is NOT that she is a woman, it is that she is a TOTALLY UNQUALIFIED woman!!!

[LightSword]

Ah well, liberals will find something wrong with the interview no matter what. Foreign policy is obviously her weakest front, and she did rather well imo.

[TheSecularist]

But Alaska is so close to Russia, what more foreign policy experience does Palin need?

[comatoast]

Rachel- you win the award for most astute Twitter comments, hands down.