The real gaffe with Palin and Pakistan

[Believing Is Art]

Apologies if a similar opinion has been posted.

Obviously Sarah Palin knows little about foreign policy, and thus her opinion (or lack thereof) on any national security issue should be questioned. But forget that for a moment. She clearly did have an opinion on crossing the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to strike Al Qaida targets. Her response to the voter's question was clear, for her. In fact so much so that we've been able to decipher it's meaning and conclude that she shares more with Obama on this issue than McCain.

Instead of letting her have her own opinion, the McCain camp swarmed in and declared it as "gotcha journalism." Palin later said she didn't really mean it and is in agreement with McCain. We all know Palin's an idiot, but what does this say about McCain?

He is not willing to let his running mate hold an opposing opinion on a hypothetical and unlikely scenario. The one time she's expressed an original thought, he swoops in to get her to retract and tell the world that no no, really, we agree. How can we expect McCain to "reach across the aisle" when he won't tolerate a single opposing opinion from his vice presidential pick?

McCain and Palin could have told Katie Couric that a good president surrounds himself with people that do not always agree with him. Instead, they made it clear that McCain will tolerate no opinions but his own if he is elected president, scratch that, dictator.

[radfringe]

1. "gotcha journalism"?

Swooping in once again to save the day (or his butt) - mccain's response just highlights the question of palin's readiness and the training wheels are not ready to be removed

her "gaffe" shows she hasn't properly memorized the mccain talking points and doesn't know how to spin the talking points in an unscripted setting

I can't fully blame palin for her pakistan statement, the mccain policies are quite scrambly and subject to change without notice. there have been times when mccain doesn't know what the mccain policies are either.

how will this effect the debate expectations? The bar is non-existent, there is an imaginary bar laying on the floor, if she doesn't trip over it when initally taking the stage the mccain campaign will declare it a victory for palin.

Biden is going to have to walk a fine line - if he comes on too strong the mccain campaign will call in a whaaaaaambulance and say Biden "beat up on her". If he's too polite, the whaaaaambulance will be that he was "being sexist". I think the best course is for Biden to give short clear answers, and let palin "bamble* along.

If there is a point where they can directly talk to each other - Biden should ask her what are the differences between mccain's policies and bush's policies. If she goes into the canned remarks about Obama, then come back with "I know what the differences are between Obama and bush - I asked what are the diffences between mccain and bush"

any questions Biden asks her should be broad and open in order to give her plenty of "bambling room"

*bamble=bumble and ramble