The big moment coming out of Palin's interview with ABC News is this clip where she fumbles, sidesteps, and generally displays total ignorance on the defining foreign policy concept of the last eight years:
Should this disqualify her? Of course. Will it? Of course not. She basically handles herself fine. Indeed, the segment is testament to nothing so much as to the cookbook approach Republicans are now allowed to take on foreign policy questions. Faced with a concept she doesn't know, and a question she doesn't understand, she quickly and confidently segues into an impassioned denunciation of "Islamic extremism" and its associated maladies. It may be that the media sells this clip as proof of her unfitness for office -- they do control how these things will be understood, contrary to their protestations -- but viewers watching this on their lonesome wouldn't notice anything particularly awry, and that's because we demand exactly nothing in the way of intellectual heft or analytical precision from our presidential candidates. Put it this way: If John McCain had gotten the same question, and given the same searching answer, the media would never mention it. It's possible that Palin reactivated her "inexperience" narrative here, but not because she answered the question at some level far below where our political discourse traditionally resides.
