I watched the “Bush Doctrine” clip for myself and it seems very clear to me that Palin didn’t know what “Bush Doctrine” meant. The left is all over it, calling Palin “head-in-the-ground oblivious". The right is all over it, claiming that Gibson was the confused one.

My opinion is that Gibson picked up on Palin’s facial reaction and generic “In what respect, Charlie?” answer. He saw a chance to expose her lack of knowledge on a subject and took it. I think this is what interviewers are supposed to do. Gibson was doing a good job by not giving up more information about what the Bush Doctrine is.

In this same interview, the following exchange took place:

GIBSON: You said recently, in your old church, “Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God.” Are we fighting a holy war?

PALIN: You know, I don’t know if that was my exact quote.

GIBSON: Exact words.

PALIN: But the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln’s words when he said — first, he suggested never presume to know what God’s will is, and I would never presume to know God’s will or to speak God’s words.

But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that’s a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side.

That’s what that comment was all about, Charlie.

GIBSON: I take your point about Lincoln’s words, but you went on and said, “There is a plan and it is God’s plan.”

This one is a bit murkier. Gibson’s initial question did use a pretty direct quote, but his later quote wasn’t accurate. Here is what Palin actually said at the Master’s Commission in Wasilla, Alaska on June 8, 2008:

Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right also for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending out on a task that is from God. That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.

I give Palin the benefit of the doubt here. I think she was trying to say that we should pray we are doing God’s will and not that we are fighting a holy war tasked to us by God.

Gibson did seem condescending, but it must be pointed out that McCain chose who they would allow to interview Palin. They didn’t pick this venue because they thought it would be bad for their campaign.

UPDATE

For those who say no one really knows what the “Bush Doctrine” is, I suggest you watch this video clip from “Why We Fight” where, in 2005, McCain gives pretty much the same definition of it as Gibson did.