Media Dismiss Palin’s Ignorance Of The Bush Doctrine Because ‘Many Americans’ Don’t Know What It Is
Media Dismiss Palin’s Ignorance Of The Bush Doctrine Because ‘Many Americans’ Don’t Know What It Is
During an interview yesterday on ABC, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) indicated that she did not know what the so-called Bush Doctrine is. When asked for her interpretation, Palin guessed, “His worldview?”
Even though Palin was unaware of the foundation of President Bush’s national security strategy, some in the media have come to her defense, arguing that ordinary Americans don’t know about it either. In short, the vice president of the United States shouldn’t be any more intelligent than “most” Americans:
– CNN’s Jessica Yellin: The question is given that many Americans themselves don’t know what the Bush doctrine is… it’s unclear how much of a fallout that would be — that question and the answer would have.”
– CNN’s David Gergen: She didn’t know what the Bush doctrine was. But I don’t think most people know what the Bush doctrine is or was.
CNN’s Candy Crowley dismissed the gaffe by saying that regular Americans don’t care. Fox News’s Juan Williams gave Palin a pass because he admitted that he also wouldn’t have been able to answer the question:
WILLIAMS: I thought actually Charlie did try a gotcha question with this business about the Bush doctrine – which if you ask me in the middle of the night, I would have been: “What? What?”
Watch a compilation:
On MSNBC’s Morning Joe today, Rudy Giuliani also tried to defend Palin, saying that three of this friends didn’t know what the Bush Doctrine was when he asked. But NBC correspondent Andea Mitchell quickly jumped in, noting that Giuliani’s friends “are not running for Vice President.”
In fact, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has used a similar argument when trying to explain away a foreign policy gaffe. Earlier this year when a reporter confronted McCain on his inaccurate claim that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is leading Iran, McCain said that because the “average American” thinks Ahmadinejad is Iran’s leader, then that’s good enough for him.
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Yeah, you see?? Sarah Palin is as stupid as the average American!!
So *there*!
September 12th, 2008 at 5:21 pmThe average American thinks that deoxygenated blood is blue as well but it doesn’t make it so. I thought the point was that leaders achieve their positions by not being average. Applebee’s isn’t cuisine either…
September 12th, 2008 at 5:23 pmIs she not standing near enough national security experts?
September 12th, 2008 at 5:23 pmThis osmosis thing has drawbacks I guess…
If we need an average American in office, wouldn’t we all be voting for the actual Bush for a third term?!
September 12th, 2008 at 5:24 pmYep, it just doesn’t matter. The VP doesn’t need to be qualified or have any knowledge, as long as the President is not black.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:26 pmJournalism is dead.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:26 pmI’ll bet the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would know.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:27 pmNo one ever got short changed underestimating the intelligence of the American public…
Republicans depend on it…
September 12th, 2008 at 5:27 pmOK, I admit it. I don’t know what the “Bush Doctrine” is.
Of course, I’m not running for President as part of a ticket that would replace Bush.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:27 pmIf the average american doesn’t know what Bush’s doctrine is then what does that make Palin? She’s certainly well below average. And since when do we vote for (below) average people for office? Oh right, let’s not include Bush.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:29 pmAnd the newest qualification for Vice President of the United States of America is blissful ignorance! Yes, dumbing oneself down is a uniquely American experience. No worries at all. Don’t waste your time learning or thinking or discussing. Just let the republicans keep you safe. Let them show you how to believe. It works for anything! Don’t worry about job qualifications ever again. Just make it all up and lie! Free examples are frequently viewed on your favorite media outlet. Just watch out for John McCain and Sarah Palin campaign ads. Don’t get weighed down by the truth. Dumb down with us, McCain/Palin, 2008!
September 12th, 2008 at 5:30 pmWhen The View and the National Enquirer are the only ones asking tough questions, America is in serious trouble.
McCon/Pullin “Fabric ‘08 America”
September 12th, 2008 at 5:30 pmAmericans really need to stop voting for “most people”- and “average American”- presidents. You just end up with idiots in the WH
September 12th, 2008 at 5:30 pmI guess the BushCo regime has lowered the bar so far that all you have to do now is fog a mirror.
The Repugs and the LIV’s must be SOOO F’ING PROUD to be able to vote for one of their own kind again!
September 12th, 2008 at 5:31 pmSo now the media believes that it’s OK for the person to be a heartbeat away from the most powerful position in the world to be just average?
Even if CNN doesn’t have very high standards for our leaders, I do. I want both the President AND the person poised to take the President’s place to be way above average. And even though understanding Bush’s policies isn’t exactly always easy, an effort should be made.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:32 pmI guess for the “I’d like to have a beer with them” crowd, Sarah Palin looks pretty damn good come 12:45 a.m. Then again, that is the beer goggle effect and all.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:34 pm360@cnn.com, loudobbs@cnn.com, am@cnn.com, bill.schneider@turner.com, jeanne.meserve@turner.com, jim.walton@turner.com, deirdre.walsh@turner.com, caffertyfile@cnn.com, kyra.phillips@turner.com, lou.dobbs@turner.com, miles.obrien@turner.com, candy.crowley@turner.com, jon.klein@cnn.com, greg.d’alba@cnn.com, jonathan.davies@cnn.com, Richard.Davis@cnn.com, susan.grant@cnn.com, ken.jautz@cnn.com, tony.maddox@cnn.com, jim.walton@cnn.com, jack.womack@cnn.com, Christiane.Amanpour@cnn.com, wolf.blitzer@cnn.com, soledad.obrien@cnn.com, sanjay.gupta@cnn.com, anderson.cooper@cnn.com, cnnfutures@cnn.com, dana.bash@cnn.com, Campbell.brown@cnn.com, Gloria.borger@cnn.com, Jim.Acosta@cnn.com, john.roberts@cnn.com, ali.velshi@cnn.com, Carol.Costello@cnn.com, rick.sanchez@cnn.com, joanna.digeronimo@cnn.com, JESSICA.YELLIN@CNN.COM, gavid.gergen@cnn.com, candy.crowley@cnn.com
September 12th, 2008 at 5:36 pm“Average” is the new “Over Qualified”…pass it on!
September 12th, 2008 at 5:37 pmAmericans wouldn’t take ther car to someone who didn’t know what a wrench was.
They wouldn’t let a Doctor operate on them, if the Doctor didn’t know what a scalpel was.
I guess if you view the Government as the enemy, then Incompetence in Public office is a Virtue.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:39 pm“The GOP: Proudly Lowering the Bar Since 1968.”
September 12th, 2008 at 5:41 pmHow crazy is it that all weekend he media will be critiquing (favorably) the republican VP candidate’s first interview since being named. It’s hard to even wrap my mind around the idea. The party of ‘keep America safe’ is putting up someone that wasn’t ready for being interviewed, didn’t have a strong first interview, putting it nicely, and is now being hailed as ‘average’. It’s all so surreal.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:42 pmI don’t know how to treat a broken neck, but I’d D*mn well expect an orthopedic surgeon to know! When will Repubs stop comparing apples to oranges? Even better, when will the MSM Stop buying into the comparisons? Why is it that we, as Americans, allow politicians to say, “Don’t vote for my opponent, he’s a ….” fill in the blank? The Democrats have a candidate that looks, talks, acts intelligently, responsibly and sensibly. The Republicans have McWorse and Pain. Words fail me at this point.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:42 pmImpeach Pelosi, Cheney and Bush and Save the Constitution!
Seemingly a person running for the second highest position in the land should know what the Bush Doctrine it. The fact that average people don’t know is irrelevant.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:44 pmMany Americans don’t know what a closet bolt is and that makes them unqualified to be a plumber
September 12th, 2008 at 5:46 pmOnly in America can you have a brain damaged alcoholic wreck a nation so thoroughly, then have his replacements line-up as “mavericks” with one being an angry, forgetful old maid and the other a fresh faced religious zealot, only to win the public’s applause with style with no real talk on policy or how life has been over the last seven plus years.
What is that about not learning from history and it repeating itself…? Oh yeah, history is boring and People magazine is exciting.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:49 pmHow is it that I know about the sick and twisted Bush Doctrine?
September 12th, 2008 at 5:49 pmThis last eight years reminds me of Idiocracy more every day.
The traditional media is shoving this shite right down our throats.
And I don’t believe the polls. You’re going to tell me with a straight face that 70-80% of the people think we’re on the wrong track in Irag, on the economy, and Bush’s popularity is at 30% and this campaign is a dead heat? And that the Vice President need not know more than the average American about U.S. foreign policy in the last, say, eight years?
The fix is in. Vote purges already commencing. Bald face lies passing as truth over the air.
How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?
September 12th, 2008 at 5:49 pmOK, I’ll state the obvious. The rest of America is not running for vice president.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:50 pmImagine if Hillary hesitated like that. I think she would’ve been crucified. No other VP candidate ever would come out of that interview with such a warm reception. How long until they claim the interview was sexist?
September 12th, 2008 at 5:53 pmIsn’t the point of electing a president and vice president is to know the things that we basically don’t ?
September 12th, 2008 at 5:57 pmSo with the GOP rekindling old rivalries, should we expect to see some sort of escalation with Vietnam to come up next? I mean, it is the next logical progression to the doctrine of “endless warfare for niche lobbyist economies”.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:58 pmThe Republicans should just draft this slogan in-regards to Palin:
It’s sexist to be sexist, because you’re already sexist towards our candidate.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:01 pmDwight D. Eisenhower: Why, thank you, ralph. I’ve been spinning in this grave for as long as I can remember. Say hello to Chuck Hagel for me, will ya?
September 12th, 2008 at 6:02 pm2 things I know about the “normal” people who are willing to share a beer with me.
A. they don’t know me well enough to know I despise the taste of beer.
B. I don’t want them running for public office.
Think about this people. The Republican slogan is “Support Sarah Palin! She’s as smart as your average person.”
Meanwhile there is a good percentage of voters who reject Barack Obama because…well…he’s just too darn smart. He’s not average like us and Sarah.
It’s enough to make you retire to bedlam.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:05 pm– CNN’s Jessica Yellin: The question is given that many Americans themselves don’t know what the Bush doctrine is…
Logically following through on that then, it stands to reason that many Americans are therefore eminently qualified to be Vice-President of the United States of America. Back to you Jessica.
Just saying . . .
September 12th, 2008 at 6:09 pmWhat a crock. When I was in high school (maybe earlier) we had to learn about the Monroe Doctrine and the Kennedy Doctrine because those were public policy statements about how our nation would interact with other nations. Do they not teach the “Bush Doctrine” (as reprehensible as it is) in school? As a mother doesn’t she know what her kids are or are not being taught?
It is hard to believe this woman is the best qualified person in the Republican Party to run for Vice President. If I were a more informed, qualified Republican woman, I would feel insulted by John McCain.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:16 pmAbout CNN’s Jessica Yellin, CNN’s David Gergen and Fox News’s Juan Williams… in this clip, don’t these people appear a bit afraid and careful to promote this neocon infomercial? bunch of cowards.. all of them.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:16 pmGergan is a GOP lap dog if ever there was one.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:18 pmAfter my rant above, I read this interesting post about how Rove is playing us. Bears looking at, he said with a slight tone of chagrin.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:21 pmCorporate Media: “Look at us, we’re stupid, too!”
September 12th, 2008 at 6:21 pmMost Average Americans are “American Idle” watching brainwashed idiots who couldn’t reason there way out of a armchair much less pay attention to the War Criminal Bush’s policies….
….so the basic GOP VP choice needs to simply know who to breath?
Seems so.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:23 pmoopsie….how to breath?
September 12th, 2008 at 6:24 pmAnd I guess the media is trying to say that American people are just as stupid as Palin. The dumbing down of the media. People rely on the media as their source the information concerning this country. And now the media is insulting the American people’s intelligence by saying that public doesn’t know the Bush doctrine. The Bush doctrine has been shoved down our throats by the Sith Administration since the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. It is time for a major cleanup in the world of journalism in this country.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:25 pmSadly I think most Americans put more thought and weight into American idle. That’s why are campaigns are ran the way they are ran. Call in or text your candidate of choice and the winner will advance next week while the loser goes home.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:28 pmHow could you NOT understand the Bush doctrine? We’ve lived in it the last 8 years.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:35 pmI am an ordinary American and I know what the Bush Doctrine is. But that is beside the point. Shouldn’t the VP be a tad better educated on these kind of things than the “average American”?
God these fools are going to be the death of us all.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:37 pmBob Says:
Imagine if Hillary hesitated like that. I think she would’ve been crucified. No other VP candidate ever would come out of that interview with such a warm reception. How long until they claim the interview was sexist?
It’s already been done. Faux Noise spent much of this morning complaining about how sexist Charlie Gibson was. They even said that no one has asked Obama such probing questions and no one has asked him “gotcha” questions. I guess they never watched the 20 debates and are forgetting Charlie Gibsons unforgettable “gotcha” questions at the debate he moderated.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:42 pmI’m less concerned that Princess Sarah didn’t know the intent of the Bush Doctrine as I am concerned with her believing that the U.S. shouldn’t second guess Israel if they decided to attack any country they perceived as a threat.
And that Palin believes Georgia and Ukraine should be granted immediate entry into NATO, despite the fact that they are not yet eligible and that they haven’t begun the long process needed for entry.
Add in McStain not knowing that Shia Iran has not and would never train Sunni al Qaeda, his belief that Russia should be thrown out of the G8, and his clear intent to stay in Iraq indefinitely, and the Bush Doctrine pales in comparison.
PEACE
September 12th, 2008 at 6:43 pmYou Probably have to be an Iraqi, to REALLY Understand the Bush Doctrine.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:43 pmOh, and I forgot to add that Palin declared that Russia invaded Georgia “totally unprovoked”.
She sure did get some fine schoolin’. Too bad actual facts didn’t make it past the Neocon tutors.
PEACE
September 12th, 2008 at 6:44 pmUh, “many Americans” are not running for VP. A VP candidate should have some sort of intelligence regarding important issues!! How stupid can the media be? This ill-informed, ignorant, lying woman wants to be VP, for God’s sake– even president! She knows nothing, has nearly no experience, and can’t even answer questions. We can only surmise that the media (as well as Palin) is really, really ignorant & stupid. A sad state of affairs for the U.S. – they want to be important in the world, yet they promote a woman who has no idea of what importance means. She will destroy the U.S. – its reputation, its credibility, its honesty — even more than Bush did. And that’s really saying something. Hey, I’m a cheerleader– I’m ready to gush about anything!! That seems to be her one theme. Freaking terrifying. Americans need to wake up & see this woman as the airhead (in regards to security & foreign affairs) that she is. She obviously has no clue. This is what you want? Then you deserve her.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:47 pm28. superid Says:
OK, I’ll state the obvious. The rest of America is not running for vice president.
I knew if I read enough comments, my own thoughts on this would be expressed. Thanks.
September 12th, 2008 at 7:06 pmHow low are we making the standards for our so called leaders now?
September 12th, 2008 at 7:06 pmBilbo Hussein Baggins Says: It’s already been done.
Oh Good Grief. Of curse, fox: the butt of the joke. Iwish it was funny. Great, the pow and the sexist. this campaign is going nowhere, lucky for them they’re running against a black man.
September 12th, 2008 at 7:13 pmUnfortunately, these pundits seem to be right that in winning American Presidential elections, facts and issues don’t matter unless they can be reduced to the most simplistic emotional hot button slogans. Even then, image seems to be what matters the most. I know what the Bush Doctrine is, otherwise known as the national security strategy of the United States, but that doesn’t matter either. The electoral college matters, and that may save us, but it doesn’t look that way to me today. A good politician can break through the wall of ignorance and obfuscation in terms that everyone can understand, but Bill Clinton isn’t running. Yuck…
September 12th, 2008 at 7:17 pmThis is a crock of shit cop out by the media!
Palin has been inappropriately nominated to be THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAN.
It is not permissible for her to be as ignorant as the myriad voters who identify with the GOP brand who will be fodder for an incoming republican administration.
September 12th, 2008 at 7:26 pmHer own son is soon to become a victim of the bu$hler doctrine, the incurious wretch.
September 12th, 2008 at 7:46 pmThose who are ignorant of history, are doomed to repeat it.
September 12th, 2008 at 7:55 pmIF i know what the damn doctrine is the possible future president should know it.
September 12th, 2008 at 8:05 pmFrigging nuts, it’s stuff like this that makes cable tv wothless.
You think the woman even knows we bought Alaska from the Russians?
tony and lido
plain and simple,she is a moron – all the right wing loonies talking her up on her foreign policy strengths and she has no f**kin idea what bush’s attitude to ferrrners is – seems dangerous to me that this woman is prepared to commit herself to answering questions she doesn’t understand – keep her in the spotlight,i say – this can only help obama – and i cant wait ’til smokin joe gets a shot at her in a debate.
September 12th, 2008 at 8:11 pmWhen America bought Alaska from Russia, the Pundits of the day called it Wastefull Government Spending. Seward’s Folly, I believe ,was the Term for it.
September 12th, 2008 at 8:19 pmIf Sarah Palin’s knowledge of things such as the Bush doctrine do not rise above an average person, then clearly she was not the most qualified person to choose for the position of VP.
September 12th, 2008 at 8:26 pmIgnorant talking heads who are on TV for how they look, not what they know certainly would be sympathetic with SP. We are in a new era of neo Know-Nothings!
September 12th, 2008 at 8:59 pmIt’s clear that Palin is in Bush in lipstick. Geez, in 2000 bush, wouldn’t have known what any foreign policy doctrine was either and look how he did. (snark on)
September 12th, 2008 at 9:36 pmThe politicians and media think the country is stupid. The scary thing is they may be right considering McSame is even close in this race.
September 12th, 2008 at 10:11 pmShouldn’t the leader of the free world be someone above average ?
Let’s See. Bush….Gentleman’s D avg……McCain almost last in his class…….Palin not too long ago asked what the Veep did (but her family discussions trained her well for policy)……
Is this some kind of weird Dostoevsky comedy ? (The Village Idiot is already taken)
September 12th, 2008 at 10:38 pmThink about the subject you know most about or are most passionate about — your favorite sports team, band, television show, author, whatever. Don’t you know a lot about it? Shouldn’t Palin know as much about foreign affairs if she wants to be a heartbeat from the President?
September 12th, 2008 at 10:45 pmNaively, I thought the press would be all over the fact that she did not know about the Bush Doctrine. This doctrine is what drove us into the greatest strategic blunder our country has ever made.
The American public may not know what the Bush Doctrine is, but they certainly know the results – a war without end, a war that is shifting money badly needed for hurting Americans to the war effort, over 4000 soldiers dead, over 20,000 soldiers injured – a lot very severely, and estimates of over 100,000 innocent Iraqis dead with millions more displaced and living in squallor.
So the pampered Candy Crowley, Jessica Yellin, David Gergen, and Juan “I don’t know what the Bush Doctrine is either” Williams – with absolutely no skin in the war and making a very good living – are only implicating their own bad journalism – because if they had been doing their frickin’ jobs for the last eight, miserable years, the American people would know what a radical and un-American doctrine this is.
The hubris of these people to shrug this off when it has been the absolute worst disaster this country has seen. Unbelievable these people call themselves journalist!
September 12th, 2008 at 10:49 pmWell Juan Idiot Williams, most Americans who don’t know shit are NOT running to be President and Vice President of the USA.
Usually, one doesn’t desire just some oily hayseed with no working brains to be the one in charge. USUALLY you want the smart, competent person to be placed into positions of authority. Ya know your freakin’ moron?
Juan Williams needs to be fired and go back to checking tire pressure at some gas station. That’s all he’s qualified for…same with all the other idiots that think ignorance and stupidity are just dandy attributes for a Prez or VP.
September 12th, 2008 at 10:55 pmSo, now the Repug standard for POTUS has been lowered to anyone that has visited more than 4 international countries and has earned their undergraduate degree in less than 6 years.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:09 pmAWESOME!!!
which if you ask me in the middle of the night, I would have been: “What? What?”
Funny, because those of us who have been following the news during the last eight years (disastrous years, I might add) know what in the world the “Bush doctrine” is.
Are we supposed to believe that the people whose job is to read those news to us don’t bloody know what “Bush doctrine” even means?
Maybe Williams was thinking of the 23%ers, who have supported this (mis)administration through all their contradictory propaganda, but whose heads didn’t explode trying to believe all the claptrap coming out of the White House.
September 13th, 2008 at 12:44 amJoe Scarboro went after the messenger (Gibson) by calling him condescending. Others quickly got on board. Accountability is not a word that Republicans understand. People like Scarboro should stop making excuses for ignorance like this. “His worldview” was a pretty good guess but like most guesses it was wrong. It looks like we are still vetting Palin and it isn’t working out to well. This was almost like a “potatoe” moment.
September 13th, 2008 at 1:04 amBut, MOST AMERICANS aren’t running for Vice Pucking Fresident.
September 13th, 2008 at 1:32 amCorporate media strikes again!
September 13th, 2008 at 1:36 am“Many Americans” are not running for the second highest position is America. She should know, it shows her ignorance. She is a gimmick candidate and last ditch effort for McCain to save the republican party for the next four years at least. As long as more light is shined on her incompetence McCain should lose any bounce the “hugs and smiles” Palin got him.
September 13th, 2008 at 2:09 amYawn.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/12/AR2008091202457.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/12/AR2008091203324.html
September 13th, 2008 at 6:16 amScotth trots out the RNC talking points, via the Neocon Charles Krauthammer.
Charlie Gibson was Unfair to Gov. Palin, because ther are actually FOUR Bush Doctrines.
1.the Bush administration policies of unilaterally withdrawing from the ABM treaty and rejecting the Kyoto protocol.(Leading to Unilateral action by Russia in Georgia, and stirrings in Bolivia and Venezuela. Cuban Missile Crisis II???)
2.Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime. (Just like in Pakistan)
3.the doctrine of preemptive war (The one Gibson was referring to)
4.The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world. (Just like in Saudi Arabia)
Fair Enough…Charlie Gibson should have qualified his question…. and said…The Bush Doctrine that got over 4000 Brave Americans and over 100,000 Iraqis Killed, by attacking the WRONG COUNTRY.
September 13th, 2008 at 7:16 amwonder why?
September 13th, 2008 at 9:42 amthe stoopid factor?
or was the msm too busy telling americans that saddam blew up twin towers?
or was msm too busy telling is the significant quanties of uranium were being bought by saddam?
or the drones of death over cleveland
or was judy miller allowed to blow chalibi to get all the scarorisim/wmd stories.
is this why dumb and dumber american,and palin have no fookun idea what bush docterin is?
wonder why
Badger-
Krauthammer coined the term “Bush Doctrine.” I think he might know a bit about it. And by your own admission, there are many aspects to that “doctrine.” It was natural for her to ask for a clarification. Feel free to also ignore the other WaPo article.
September 13th, 2008 at 10:50 amCharlie Gibson’s Gaffe
By Charles Krauthammer
Saturday, September 13, 2008; A17
“At times visibly nervous . . . Ms. Palin most visibly stumbled when she was asked by Mr. Gibson if she agreed with the Bush doctrine. Ms. Palin did not seem to know what he was talking about. Mr. Gibson, sounding like an impatient teacher, informed her that it meant the right of ‘anticipatory self-defense.’ ”
– New York Times, Sept. 12
Informed her? Rubbish.
The New York Times got it wrong. And Charlie Gibson got it wrong.
There is no single meaning of the Bush doctrine. In fact, there have been four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another over the eight years of this administration — and the one Charlie Gibson cited is not the one in common usage today. It is utterly different.
He asked Palin, “Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?”
She responded, quite sensibly to a question that is ambiguous, “In what respect, Charlie?”
Sensing his “gotcha” moment, Gibson refused to tell her. After making her fish for the answer, Gibson grudgingly explained to the moose-hunting rube that the Bush doctrine “is that we have the right of anticipatory self-defense.”
Wrong.
I know something about the subject because, as the Wikipedia entry on the Bush doctrine notes, I was the first to use the term. In the cover essay of the June 4, 2001, issue of the Weekly Standard entitled, “The Bush Doctrine: ABM, Kyoto, and the New American Unilateralism,” I suggested that the Bush administration policies of unilaterally withdrawing from the ABM treaty and rejecting the Kyoto protocol, together with others, amounted to a radical change in foreign policy that should be called the Bush doctrine.
Then came 9/11, and that notion was immediately superseded by the advent of the war on terror. In his address to the joint session of Congress nine days after 9/11, President Bush declared: “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.” This “with us or against us” policy regarding terror — first deployed against Pakistan when Secretary of State Colin Powell gave President Musharraf that seven-point ultimatum to end support for the Taliban and support our attack on Afghanistan — became the essence of the Bush doctrine.
Until Iraq. A year later, when the Iraq war was looming, Bush offered his major justification by enunciating a doctrine of preemptive war. This is the one Charlie Gibson thinks is the Bush doctrine.
It’s not. It’s the third in a series and was superseded by the fourth and current definition of the Bush doctrine, the most sweeping formulation of the Bush approach to foreign policy and the one that most clearly and distinctively defines the Bush years: the idea that the fundamental mission of American foreign policy is to spread democracy throughout the world. It was most dramatically enunciated in Bush’s second inaugural address: “The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.”
This declaration of a sweeping, universal American freedom agenda was consciously meant to echo John Kennedy’s pledge in his inaugural address that the United States “shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” It draws also from the Truman doctrine of March 1947 and from Wilson’s 14 points.
If I were in any public foreign policy debate today, and my adversary were to raise the Bush doctrine, both I and the audience would assume — unless my interlocutor annotated the reference otherwise — that he was speaking about the grandly proclaimed (and widely attacked) freedom agenda of the Bush administration.
Not the Gibson doctrine of preemption.
Not the “with us or against us” no-neutrality-is-permitted policy of the immediate post-9/11 days.
Not the unilateralism that characterized the pre-9/11 first year of the Bush administration.
Presidential doctrines are inherently malleable and difficult to define. The only fixed “doctrines” in American history are the Monroe and the Truman doctrines which come out of single presidential statements during administrations where there were few other contradictory or conflicting foreign policy crosscurrents.
Such is not the case with the Bush doctrine.
Yes, Sarah Palin didn’t know what it is. But neither does Charlie Gibson. And at least she didn’t pretend to know — while he looked down his nose and over his glasses with weary disdain, sighing and “sounding like an impatient teacher,” as the Times noted. In doing so, he captured perfectly the establishment snobbery and intellectual condescension that has characterized the chattering classes’ reaction to the mother of five who presumes to play on their stage.
September 13th, 2008 at 9:24 pm80 & 81 BUNK. Whatever butt covering Krauthammer is doing NOW the Bush doctrine HAS a well established meaning to both the press and to the people of the US it comes from his speech at West point when he said “If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long.” It is about preventative rather than pre-emptive war. The people who coined wheres the beef werent responsible for what it became commonly used for AFTER they coined it. What the Bush doctrine is to anyone marginally keeping up with foriegn policy is quite clear and it ISNT UP TO KRAUTHAMMER. You guys are weak
September 13th, 2008 at 10:12 pmI think you may have inadvertently hit upon the problem: Our media doesn’t know what the Bush Doctrine is, and if they don’t know, how can they inform the viewing public?
I absolutely love Juan Williams’s comment. It seems obvious that he and the rest of the on air personalities had been spun by the McCain camp before going on the air with the “freshly pulled from the ass”-line that “the American people don’t know what the Bush Doctrine is”. They were probably urged to personalize it, with the McCain campaign telling these reporters, “I didn’t know what the Bush Doctrine was; Did you know?”
Juan Williams’s ego, however, wouldn’t let him do that. He had to add the only circumstance he could think of in which he wouldn’t know what the Bush Doctrine is: “if you ask me in the middle of the night, I would have been: ‘What? What?’” If awakened from deep sleep in the middle of the night, that would be the only way that Juan Williams wouldn’t have known right off the bat what the Bush Doctrine is.
The problem is, however, Sarah Palin wasn’t asleep. She may have been daydreaming about what color carpeting to have installed in the VP’s offices in the Old Executive Office Building, or selling Air Force Two on Craigslist (or how to get a per diem for the kids), but she definitely wasn’t asleep.
If the media is saying the American people don’t know what the Bush Doctrine is, then it’s the media who is elitest.
September 14th, 2008 at 10:41 am