Why Palin's "Bush Doctrine" Gaffe Matters: Does She Know What Foreign Policy Doctrine Is?

[mcg]

TPM: Why Palin's "Bush Doctrine" Gaffe Matters: Does She Know What Foreign Policy Doctrine Is?
By Greg Sargent - September 12, 2008, 11:34AM

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/palins_bush_doctrine_gaffe_rev.php

... Here's my take. The issue here isn't just that Palin didn't know what the Bush Doctrine was. It's that she didn't appear to comprehend the notion that there's such a thing as foreign policy doctrine at all.

The key exchange occurred when Charlie Gibson asked her what she interpreted the Bush Doctrine to be, and she replied, "his world view, you mean?"
...
Does Palin even know that competing foreign policy visions or doctrines exist and that the clash between them is one of the key things this election is all about? Does she even know that articulating and implementing such a vision is, you know, part of what a presidential administration does? Sure doesn't look like it.

[Ashy Larry]

1. She knows very little about any subject relating to the presidency.

Its completely absurd.

[GTurck]

14. I wonder...

if she ever read The Constitution? Every state, as far as I know, requires graduating 8th graders or seniors to pass a citizenship test. It used to mean you really had engaged with The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution but over the past 30 years that has degraded into marking a preprinted question sheet that has multiple choices and teachers only teach to that question sheet. I was appalled when I was working as a teacher's aide in special education that the merely learning disabled (dyslexics, ADD) were not only not learning enough to even know The Bill of Rights but what they had to learn totally bored them. What I heard is: what will knowing this do for me? There is a vast army of younger Americans who never have really learned what this country is all about because to them it had and has nothing to do with making money, eating at McDonald's, reading People, or getting their driver's license. Thank God for those of you who did engage but our challenge is to somehow get to those others. Palin would not want them to because she probably was one of those bored kids with a bored teacher getting 20 questions on U.S. citizenship.

[Kweli4Real]

2. A little off topic, but ...

While reading on another site, more discouraging stuff about Palin, I was struck by a thought ...

I think I've discovered the McCain/neo-Con strategy in selecting Palin. I'm starting to believe that he selected her to whip up the Republican, right-wing, fundie christian base; but he/they have no intention on having her serve as VP.

McCain/the neo-cons wanted to tap Liebermann for the post; but there was no way they could do so without losing the fundie christian and hardcore republican base.

So the selected someone who could read a script that would appeal to all those groups that McCain couldn't move ... enter unknown Sarah Palin.

My prediction:

If McCain/Palin gets elected, trooper-gate or another of her many, many, many displays of poor judgment/dishonesty/abuses of power will "force" her resignation.

Then, McCain/the Neo-cons can say screw you fundies, screw you fiscal conservatives, screw you Republican party, I'm APPOINTING Lieberman to the VP post, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Please note: I probably misspelled Leibermann's name but I'm too lazy to look up the proper spelling.

[jimshoes]

3. Our job is to force her resignation from the campign

and dampen that fundie enthusiasm by them picking Mittens or lieberman to run as VP.

[ladywnch]

4. No, our job is to get Obama ELECTED! then she can slink away

to her well earned obscurity. We can't focus on her. THAT is going to cost us the election. call her out on things like the bush doctrine, and all her lies, but that cannot be our focus....just another tool to use for her and mccain's defeat.

[Kweli4Real]

5. Agreed ...

We're focusing way too much on Palin. Obama is focusing way too much on Palin. Dealing with Palin is Joe "I want to preserve my brand" Biden's job.

[L. Coyote]

10. This is when Palin sinks or swims, but registering and turning out voters wins elections

with more reliability than most available activities.
There is still no substitute for politically lame opponents, though.

[ginnyinWI]

6. ha--she'll probably run against him in 2012. n/t

[BostonTLover]

7. apparently Gibson's definition of Bush Doctrine is only one of 4

hm...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/12/AR2008091202457.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Charlie Gibson's Gaffe

By Charles Krauthammer
Saturday, September 13, 2008; Page A17

"At times visibly nervous . . . Ms. Palin most visibly stumbled when she was asked by Mr. Gibson if she agreed with the Bush doctrine. Ms. Palin did not seem to know what he was talking about. Mr. Gibson, sounding like an impatient teacher, informed her that it meant the right of 'anticipatory self-defense.' "

-- New York Times, Sept. 12

Informed her? Rubbish.

The New York Times got it wrong. And Charlie Gibson got it wrong.

There is no single meaning of the Bush Doctrine. In fact, there have been four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another over the eight years of this administration -- and the one Charlie Gibson cited is not the one in common usage today. It is utterly different.

He asked Palin, "Do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?"

She responded, quite sensibly to a question that is ambiguous, "In what respect, Charlie?"

Sensing his "gotcha" moment, Gibson refused to tell her. After making her fish for the answer, Gibson grudgingly explained to the moose-hunting rube that the Bush doctrine "is that we have the right of anticipatory self-defense."
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Wrong.

I know something about the subject because, as the Wikipedia entry on the Bush Doctrine notes, I was the first to use the term. In the cover essay of the June 4, 2001, issue of the Weekly Standard entitled, "The Bush Doctrine: ABM, Kyoto, and the New American Unilateralism," I suggested that the Bush administration policies of unilaterally withdrawing from the ABM treaty and rejecting the Kyoto protocol, together with others, amounted to a radical change in foreign policy that should be called the Bush Doctrine.

[thecrow]

9. She prolly thinks that the New American Unilateralism

is a new kind of church.

[lumpy]

12. I don't believe a damn word Krauthammer has to say.

That pig is one of the worst right wingers this country has ever had to bear. Of course he is going to come up with some convoluted reason to explain Palin lack of knowledge on basic governmental finctioning. An aside: I thought it was strange that Palin didn't hesitate when asked if she'd run for VP or that she immediatly stated she was up to the job without apparently any forethought or self examination. I really think she suffers from a huge case of narcissism. Frightening.

[mcg]

15. Krauthammer's gaffe

Charles Krauthammer's gaffe has been promoting this neocon insanity. He was and is a full fledged member of the neocon establishment.

"four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another"

Succeeding another? I think not. He seems to think that he is the decider of what the "Bush Doctine" means now. I think to many people, going to war before it is necessary ("preventive war" vs. "preemptive war") is still a part of the "Bush Doctrine". I haven't heard Bush renounce this disastrous policy. These neocons are trying to camouflage themselves. For example, the Project for a New American Century website is gone now.

[northernlights]

8. actually her initial response was

"In what respect?" :wtf:

[L. Coyote]

11. "In what respect, Charlie?"

Charlie had an opening and missed it.

Charlie (with his best Fargo accent): "Well, NOT bush doctorin' in the bikini competition sense."

[Hugin]

13. I wasn't surprised that she didn't mention the UN's role in any potential conflicts...

That fact alone tells me where she's coming from... Fresh from the "Get US out of the UN" crowd... Circa 1950's.