Friday, September 12, 2008

Palin on ABC

I watched as much of ABC's interview with Sarah Palin as I could find. From the clips I saw I'm not overly impressed nor overly worried. Now, to me, the job of President is mostly about security and foreign policy.

She was definitely shaky at times, not seeming to know what the "Bush Doctrine" is or to have understood why the interviewer was asking about carrying out attacks inside Pakistan. Okay, there are holes in her knowledge right now. I doubt anyone would be too surprised by that. With a little prodding she was able to provide her views on preemption and I was left with the feeling that she's competent and will learn what she needs to learn if she finds herself in the top job.

I wasn't too pleased with view that Georgia & Ukraine should be admitted to NATO. This is right out of the McCain playbook, I know, but really she should ponder this one a bit. I said before that I didn't think the United States should be so keen to poke Putin in the eye. And, he's since proven he's serious about South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Palin does love talking about energy and she was right to press her point that energy is a big part of national security. I think I was going to agree with her, but ABC cut her off too quickly. {I would like to have heard her views on Russian oil exploration at the North Pole. I would bet she knows her stuff on that topic.}

Overall my impression is that ABC edited the interview so badly that it was hard to come to any firm conclusion on Sarah Palin.