Below The Beltway

Here are the first three parts of Charlie Gibson’s interview with Sarah Palin which aired last night.

World News Tonight I:

Quite honest, I somewhat agree with Justin Gardner’s take on this segment of the interview, it does sound like Palin is simple reciting, either verbatim in her own words, the stuff that was in the briefing books that she’s been studying for the past two weeks. Did she have an opinion on Georgia’s membership in NATO before August 29th ? Does she really understand the ramifications of extending America’s nuclear umbrella into the Caucuses and saying, essentially, that Tiblisi is as important to the national security of the United States as New York City ? Quite honestly, I’m not so sure.

As for the segment regarding the Bush Doctrine, I think what we’re really seeing there is a conscious effort on the part of the McCain campaign to not be directly identified with the Bush Administration and it’s policies. The pre-emptive war idea that is at the heart of the Bush Doctrine is, quite honestly, unsustainable in the modern world and it’s unpopular to boot. It’s not surprising that John McCain would want to distance himself from it.

World News Tonight II:

Palin’s response to the “task from God” statement struck me as a bit disingenuous. Contary to what she said, her statement about Iraq and Afghanistan being a “task from God” are strikingly different from what Abraham Lincoln actually said:

The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God can not be for, and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party—and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say this is probably true—that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By his mere quiet power, on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.

Lincoln’s quote is, it seems, far more modest than Palin’s when it comes to invoking the Almighty. That said, I don’t see why this is even an issue.

Nightline:

Personally, I don’t think that Palin’s position as Governor of Alaska makes her as much of an expert on energy policy as the McCain Campaign claims. The state of Alaska doesn’t run the oil and natural gas industry in the state, it merely permits independent companies to do so. Moreover, asking a politician if she believes what is, at its basis, a scientific idea — how much human activity contributes to climate change — seems absurd to me. We didn’t really get much insight into Palin from this short segment.

H/T: Justin Garnder