Sarah Palin...ready to lead? NOT!

I, like many, have seen some bits and pieces of the interview Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had with ABC's Charlie Gibson. First, as a reporter myself, I have to applaud him on his questions. If you are in the 'biz', you know he had a team of helpers but that does not negate the quality of the questions he presented Gov. Palin. They were excellent! Unfortunately, her answers did not exactly his a home run.

There were critical flubs on her part. The biggest mistake she made was NOT knowing the Bush Doctrine, which states that our country will send troops into an ally's borders against that country's will to halt suspected terrorism. I have heard this doctrine stated before and I was against it then, I'm against it now. I didn't realize it was an -official- policy of the Bush Administration. I'm certain many of you weren't aware of this policy either.

Republicans will say because many Americans don't know about this doctrine, it's OK that Gov. Palin didn't know either. I disagree with that. MOST Americans are NOT running for vice president. Imagine if she was speaking to the leader of Pakistan and he asked how she felt about that doctrine, did she intend to promote it? Would Gov. Palin give that leader the same 'deer in the headlights' look she gave Gibson? That brings up another point...she has never met with a foreign head of state.

Gov. Palin blew that fact off by saying many VP candidates had never met with a foreign head of state. Well, she is the first in the last 30-plus years. The country has changed a lot and the VP has to be able to communicate with other country leaders...she never has. On top of that, she didn't even have a passport until last year. She had no interest in traveling abroad, but she is willing to be 'hard on Russia'. The last time I checked, Russia wasn't threatening us. Just because you can see a country, does not make them the enemy.

Let's also face it...she totally flip-flopped on the environmental issue. She criticized Al Gore's opinions on the environment, NOW she says there is some human influence on global warming.

The Republican ticket is being VERY hypocritical to say Sen. Obama is not ready to lead when Gov. Palin clearly is a big fish in a small pond that they are trying to promote as something more.