danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

I have not seen the full Charles Gibson interview with Governor Palin, but this morning I did hear the portion everyone is talking about, namely when Gibson asked Palin what her position is on the Bush Doctrine.  It is clear from her response that the expression, or at least the meaning of the expression, was unfamiliar to her. To me this isn’t surprising.  Being governor might give you “executive experience”, but governors are not engaged with national and international affairs in the same way as are presidents, vice presidents and members of the house and senate.  Governor Palin obviously has been out of the loop until two weeks ago, concentrating her energies on issues that matter exclusively to Alaska.  She has been undergoing extensive tutoring–much the same way George W. Bush did following the election in 2000–but a person theretofore unaware can only learn so much in a fortnight.

Today on the radio I heard Neil Boortz complaining about Charlie Gibson playing “gotcha” with the question, equating it to asking her the name of the prime minister of Turkmenistan.  That is a pathetic comparison.  The names of office holders of distant nations with little diplomatic importance to the United States is hardly comparable to a question related to one of the central tenets of American foreign and military policy under President Bush.  Especially considering that that policy was used as a justification for the war in which we are presently engaged.

I know what the Bush Doctrine is.  Neil Boortz knows what the Bush Doctrine is.  I am a private citizen and so is Boortz.  If an individual running for the vice presidency of the United States knows less about a critical issue–again, this isn’t about the prime minister of Turkmenistan, as Boortz said–than a classical music DJ and a libertarian talk show host, that’s a big problem.  And it is an extreme example of intellectual dishonesty on Boortz’s part to pretend that it was a “gotcha” question.  If I could have answered it, Palin should have been able to answer it.  Even if her answer would be completely different from mine she should know the expression by name, and its ramifications through and through.  The term “Bush Doctrine” has been used on television and printed in newspapers regularly–probably close to daily–for the last five years at least.

So, when Boortz, or anyone else for that matter, feigns outrage that a vice presidential candidate is presented with an extraordinarily relevant question that he or she cannot answer, and tries to pin blame on the media for trying to trick said candidate, I find it despicable and pathetic.   John McCain could have answered the question, I bet.  So could Barack Obama or Joseph Biden.  And if either of them couldn’t, people like Boortz would have jumped all over it, and would have spent days blasting them for being unqualified to be commander-in-chief.

I cannot express in strong enough terms how mentally weak I find people who would choose to blame Charles Gibson for Governor Palin’s lack of understanding, or how loathsome I find people who express phony outrage at Barack Obama, falsely claiming he referred to Governor Palin as a “pig”, or supported teaching kindergartners sex-ed.  I respect a difference of opinion on policy, and if you simply have a different attitude about the purpose of government and want to articulate your beliefs, I respect that, too.  I might disagree with you, but I respect an honest presentation of two sides to an argument.  But people who put forward lies and innuendo as a substitute for genuine discourse are unworthy of the title American.

Filed under: Current Events, Politics on September 12th, 2008