THE FULL PALIN.

I can't decide if CBS's decision to release Palin's Roe v. Wade response on the eve of the vice-presidential debate is meant to deliver a deathblow to her candidacy or give her a handicap in the debate. On the one hand, it's hard to imagine anyone coming off worse than Palin does here. Her performance is further brutalized by being set against Biden's far more lucid understanding of what a Constitution is and how one works. On the other hand, at this point, expectations for her debate performance are so low that demonstrating a functioning cardiovascular system will be heralded as a glittering triumph. Check it out:
Watch CBS Videos OnlineIt reads:

COURIC: Do you think there's an inherent right to privacy in the Constitution? PALIN: I do. Yeah, I do. COURIC: That's the cornerstone of Roe v Wade PALIN: I do. And I believe that --individual states can handle what the people within the different constituencies in the 50 states would like to see their will ushered in in an issue like that. COURIC: What other Supreme Court decisions do you disagree with? PALIN: Well, let's see. There's --of course --in the great history of America rulings there have been rulings, that's never going to be absolute consensus by every American. And there are--those issues, again, like Roe v Wade where I believe are best held on a state level and addressed there. So you know--going through the history of America, there would be others but-- COURIC: Can you think of any? PALIN: Well, I could think of--of any again, that could be best dealt with on a more local level. Maybe I would take issue with. But you know, as mayor, and then as governor and even as a Vice President, if I'm so privileged to serve, wouldn't be in a position of changing those things but in supporting the law of the land as it reads today.

Just to get this straight. Sarah Palin believes in an individual right to privacy, which is the basis for the Roe decision. But she disagrees with the decision. Because she thinks individual states should be able to abrogate a Constitutional right if they so choose. We've left the realm where the failure rests with Sarah Palin's experience or prep staff and entered the realm where her high school civics teacher should be fired, or dragged out of retirement and shamed. Meanwhile, you'll notice her final answer, where she dodges Couric's invitation to name a Supreme Court decision she disagrees with by explicitly refusing to consider the possibility that she may one day be called upon to serve as president. Finally, Palin gives an answer I agree with.Updated: Forgot that the right to privacy made its debut in Griswold, not Roe Roe is just where it really blew up.