Hard questions are not 'Gotcha' questions

The "gotcha" Supreme Court question often gets portrayed as, "Name a Supreme Court case," which it wasn't. Palin told Couric that there were several decisions out there that not everyone would agree with and that she wouldn't agree with. So Couric asked the obvious follow-up, basically, what are some of the decisions you don't agree with. She couldn't answer the question.

Same thing with Palin's inability to name the newspapers and writers she reads. She says she does a lot of reading but when asked what she reads she can't come up with an answer. Then Palin claims she's a victim of "gotcha" journalism.

As for the Bush Doctrine, it's is why we've been in a war in Iraq for the last five years. It represents a huge change in the way our country uses its military. If you're running for VP, you ought to know what it is.

The media had two months to figure out who this unknown is. She didn't run for president. She didn't go through the way-too-long primary process like Obama, Biden and McCain have -- where, by the way, much of this stuff gets fleshed out. I'd argue that if McCain would have picked Tim Pawlenty you'd be hearing many of the same kinds of questions of him (although he had been around the national scene a little bit more, stumping for McCain and going on Meet the Press, etc.).

I'd even argue that most of the "gotcha" questions weren't even hard questions.

 

Do you have any idea how many people that eliminates?

 

"What newspapers and periodicals do you read to stay informed on national issues" is only a gotcha question if you can't name one.

 

Who is the president of Burkina Faso?

That's a gotcha quesiton. It's not relevant to anything rignt now -- unless Palin was interviewing to be the Ambassdor to Burkina Faso -- and it's intended to make someone look stupid.

How many Americans have won the Nobel Prize for Literature? Again, a gotcha question. It would be nice if Palin could name Steinbeck or Hemingway or Faulkner, much less Saul Bellow or Toni Morrison, but a case could easily be made that it's unfair and irrelevant.

But "What do you think about the Bush Doctrine?" cuts right to the heart of one of the most important issues of today. We are spending 9 billion a month in Iraq and have lost 4,000 lives because of the Bush Doctrine. It might be unfair to ask her if she understands the Monroe Doctrine, but the Bush Doctrine? Seriously? If you cannot understand why that's important, please get out of journalism. Obama and Biden have both been asked this question in some form over the last few years. Virtually every politician has. If you don't understand what the Bush Doctrine is, you haven't been paying enough attention to hold the second-highest office in the land, especially behind a 72-year-old man.

Would you order strikes inside Pakistan if you have credible evidence terrorists like bin Laden are hiding there?

This is the very question Palin claimed was gotcha, it wasn't even asked by a journalist (it was asked by a supporter) and she didn't know what McCain wanted her to say, so she answered what she thought, then claimed "the media" was trying to trick her when she found out it went against his position.

The whole idea that she shouldn't have to answer basic questions about foreign policy or domestic affairs because she can't get bogged down in the details is stupid, TwoBack.

No one knew whether Sarah Palin was smart or dumb until she fucked up her interview with Charlie Gibson. None of us had ever heard her interviewed.

Had Obama or Biden whiffed on questions like these, I'd be just as horrified. I certainly wouldn't have argued it was ok with Obama because he plans to govern from his gut. I'd have decided he was woefully inexperienced, clueless, or both.

 

Exactly. Hard to say it's a gotcha question when you bring up the topic to begin with.

From what I can tell, McPalin thinks it's a gotcha question if it can't be answered with a line pulled directly from the stump speech.

 

Everyone who is afraid to answer questions.

How can we trust a candidate to have their hand next to the red telephone if they are afraid to be answered an unscripted question? I understand the ridiculousness if someone were to ask Palin about North Bumfuck, South Dakota's law on sheep having sex with cows. But Palin has had just two non-Fox interviews in the last six weeks, and bitched that they set her up to fail.

 

Good.

I don't want a president or vice-president pulled from among the top 50 percent of society. Give me the best and the brightest, on either side.

Our criteria should always be so strict that it eliminates all but a select few.

 

Of course, the last eight years have shown that every once in a while, the monkey banging away on the keyboard can write Shakespeare.

 

More like Louis L'Amour.

 

Or "My Pet Goat."

 

You're wrong. The Bush Doctrine was an appropriate matter of inquiry. They didn't ask her to recite the periodic table, or discuss recapturing depreciation in a non-recourse loan or who Gavrilo Princip was.

Asking her if she felt it was better her daughter got pregnant than was taught about birth control was also an appropriate area on inquiry.

It's not like they asked this Republican Vice Presidential Candidate to spell potato.

Anything that deals with government, history, diplomacy, economics and ethics is fair game. She's an unknown person for 280,000,000 Americans and she wants to be a heart beat away from being the Executive in Charge of Government and Commander in Chief, if she can't deal with a morning talk show host, she needs to get the hell out of public life.

 

Yes, but it still leaves tens of thousands of folks who might be able to stand the gaff.