Sarah Palin doesn’t “blink”

By Bree Hocking

Give Sarah Palin an A for effort. This girl may not have known the answers to many of Charlie Gibson’s questions during her big interview Thursday, but she wasn’t about to start blinking.

No sirree, Charlie, Palin said, she didn’t ”blink” an eyelash when John McCain offered her the No. 2 spot on the ticket despite the fact that she’d never been outside of the country (apart from Canada and Mexico) until her “trip of a lifetime” to visit the troops in Kuwait and Germany last summer; despite the fact that she’d never met a foreign head of state; despite the fact that she seemed strangely sanguine about the possibility of war with Russia should Georgia join NATO; and despite the fact that she could not define the “Bush Doctrine,” which she bizarrely referred to as his “worldview.” (Try pulling that one the next time your history teacher asks you about the Monroe Doctrine. Right, I know, we expect more from our schoolkids.)

Palin is ready and prepared even for the presidency, she asserted, noting ”you can’t blink, you have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we’re on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can’t blink.” Got it? No blinking allowed. Get ready for the great American stare-off.

Then there was this choice exchange:

GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?

PALIN: They’re our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.

Wow, if this is what qualifies as insight, maybe Americans should just spend more time staring at foreign countries (from a safe distance, of course) and get rid of the State Department altogether.

Lest we sound too critical of a beginner (who aspires to the second highest office in the land), she at least was capable of articulating her answers in relatively understandable English with minimal stumbling, which is more than can be said for some in “that closed door, good old boy network” Palin is so fond of denigrating.