Palin on Couric #3: on abortion, feminism, homosexuality

9/30: CBS News' Katie Couric has released yet another clip of her infamously disastrous interviews that is even rubbing conservatives' nerves raw. Palin addresses Biden, abortion, feminism, homosexuality (which she says is a choice).

Here are some of the worse moments:

Couric: If a 15-year-old is raped by her father, do you believe it should be illegal for her to get an abortion, and why?

Palin: I am pro-life. And I'm unapologetic in my position that I am pro-life. And I understand there are good people on both sides of the abortion debate. In fact, good people in my own family have differing views on abortion, and when it should be allowed. Do I respect people's opinions on this. Now, I would counsel to choose life. I would also like to see a culture of life in this country. But I would also like to take it one step further. Not just saying I am pro-life and I want fewer and fewer abortions in this country, but I want them, those women who find themselves in circumstances that are absolutely less than ideal, for them to be supported, and adoptions made easier.

Couric: But ideally, you think it should be illegal for a girl who was raped or the victim of incest to get an abortion?

Palin: I'm saying that, personally, I would counsel the person to choose life, despite horrific, horrific circumstances that this person would find themselves in. And, um, if you're asking, though, kind of foundationally here, should anyone end up in jail for having an … abortion, absolutely not. That's nothing I would ever support.

Couric: Some people have credited the morning-after pill for decreasing the number of abortions. How do you feel about the morning-after pill?

Palin: Well, I am all for contraception. And I am all for preventative measures that are legal and save, and should be taken, but Katie, again, I am one to believe that life starts at the moment of conception. And I would like to see …

Couric: And so you don't believe in the morning-after pill?

Palin: ... I would like to see fewer and fewer abortions in this world. And again, I haven't spoken with anyone who disagrees with my position on that.

Couric: I'm sorry, I just want to ask you again. Do you not support or do you condone or condemn the morning-after pill.

Palin: Personally, and this isn't McCain-Palin policy …

Now there are Palin critics on the right; Will doubts McCain too

You know things are getting bad for the McCain/Palin ticket when the pundits on the right are criticizing Sarah Palin's candidacy, or even calling for her to step down. This candidacy is becoming the most troublesome vice-presidential nomination since Democrat George McGovern's nomination of Thomas Eagleton in the 1972 election campaign.

Last week conservative columnist Kathleen Parker argued ("Palin Problem: She’s out of her league") that Palin should drop out of the race. She suggested that Palin cite personal reasons (namely, tending to her baby) in her withdrawal statement, and she closed by saying that she should "Do it for your country."

Now, George Will has joined the critics. See "George Will: Palin Is Not Qualified." He cited Palin's performance with Katie Couric "a disaster." The conservative columnist has also slammed McCain's handling of the financial crisis as "unpresidential."

This is a relief: even conservatives are seeing that this ticket is unpresidential and unprepared.

New Palin gaffes: dinosaurs; Supreme Court rulings; gotcha questions

The newest Sarah Palin gaffes:
She publicly uttered that humans and dinosaurs coexisted with dinosaurs.
HUMANS AND DINOSAURS

Soon after Sarah Palin was elected mayor of the foothill town of Wasilla, Alaska, she startled a local music teacher by insisting in casual conversation that men and dinosaurs coexisted on an Earth created 6,000 years ago -- about 65 million years after scientists say most dinosaurs became extinct -- the teacher said.

After conducting a college band and watching Palin deliver a commencement address to a small group of home-schooled students in June 1997, Wasilla resident Philip Munger said, he asked the young mayor about her religious beliefs.

Palin told him that "dinosaurs and humans walked the Earth at the same time," Munger said. When he asked her about prehistoric fossils and tracks dating back millions of years, Palin said "she had seen pictures of human footprints inside the tracks," recalled Munger, who teaches music at the University of Alaska in Anchorage and has regularly criticized Palin in recent years on his liberal political blog, called Progressive Alaska.

The idea of a "young Earth" -- that God created the Earth about 6,000 years ago, and dinosaurs and humans coexisted early on -- is a popular strain of creationism.

Though in her race for governor she called for faith-based "intelligent design" to be taught along with evolution in Alaska's schools, Gov. Palin has not sought to require it, state educators say.

So, Palin takes a literalist-fundamentalist reading of scientific history.

RECOGNITION OF SUPREME COURT RULINGS
There are more big gaffes in Sarah Palin's interview with Couric. The only thing is that these clips have not yet been broadcast. The clips make apparent that Palin knows of no Supreme Court rulings other than Roe v. Wade.
From Jonathan Martin in "The Politico":

Of concern to McCain's campaign, however, is a remaining and still-undisclosed clip from Palin's interview with Couric last week that has the political world buzzing.

The Palin aide, after first noting how "infuriating" it was for CBS to purportedly leak word about the gaffe, revealed that it came in response to a question about Supreme Court decisions.

After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases.

There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.

A CAMPAIGN THAT THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN KEEPS SEALED IN A COCOON

On most days, Palin makes only one public appearance, if that. Fundraisers have been scrapped. And in the 10 days leading up to Thursday's debate with Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden, she will have made only one major public appearance, which was with McCain.

With these verbal gaffes, is it any wonder that National Public Radio's Nina Tottenberg refers to Palin's campaign as being "sealed in a cocoon."

VOTERS' QUESTIONS AS GOTCHA QUESTIONS
McCain and Palin made a joint appearance for CBS News' Katie Couric. Couric asked Palin for a clarification of the apparent inconsistency between the pair on cross-border attacks on Pakistan. The controversy originated in a voters' question to Palin about Pakistan. Yet, McCain alternatively called the voters' question a "gotcha journalism" question and claimed that Palin didn't hear the question that clearly. (Incidentally, Couric was now sporting the original Tina Fey heavy frame glasses.)
McCain/Palin are perfecting the Rudy Giuliani let me answer your question by reacting to it technique, but not responding to it:

Katie Couric: Over the weekend, Gov. Palin, you said the U.S. should absolutely launch cross-border attacks from Afghanistan into Pakistan to, quote, "stop the terrorists from coming any further in." Now, that's almost the exact position that Barack Obama has taken and that you, Sen. McCain, have criticized as something you do not say out loud. So, Gov. Palin, are you two on the same page on this?

Sarah Palin: We had a great discussion with President Zardari as we talked about what it is that America can and should be doing together to make sure that the terrorists do not cross borders and do not ultimately put themselves in a position of attacking America again or her allies. And we will do what we have to do to secure the United States of America and her allies.

Palin chose to give a long-winded response that she hoped would divert voters' attention from the fact that she did not respond to Couric's query about inconsistencies between she and McCain.
Palin is uncanny with stretching the truth about the location of the question interchange. It was in a pizza parlor, yet Palin recast it as "a question from across an area."

Networks protest blocked access to Palin; Couric interview explains why access is blocked

The McCain/Palin handlers sequestered Gov. Sarah Palin away from the television networks on the occasion of Palin's visits with international leaders at the United Nations. {{Scroll below for frightening comments Palin made to CBS' Couric.}}
Huffington Post issued a compilation of reports from major media outlets (CBS, AP, ABC). This excerpt from ABC News summed up the situation:

There's a battle going on right now over how the networks will be allowed to cover Sarah Palin's big day of visits in NY with world leaders. Palin is scheduled to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai shortly, followed by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and then with McCain advisor, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The networks had arranged for a "pool" camera- one camera to cover the meetings, whose video would be pooled or shared with all networks. Such arrangements are standard when dealing with intimate high-level meetings between leaders and candidates. But typically, along with cameras, there is an editorial presence-- at least one print reporter, one TV reporter and one radio reporter is standard. Today, the McCain campaign had said it would allow only one editorial person inside. Now, the campaign is saying it wants only the camera inside with no editorial presence. All of the networks are objecting. Stay tuned.

P.S.: The networks have just voted to BAN any use of the photographs/video in protest.

* * *
A major CNN female anchor, Campbell Brown, charged the McCain campaign's treatment of Palin as sexist. The writer wondered whether this cloistering away of the VP pick would have happened were the VP nominee a man.
* * *
Sarah Palin's appearance with CBS News' Katie Couric resolved any questions as to why the McCain/Palin handlers have kept the media away from Palin: She can be an unmitigated disaster when she is allowed to speak unscripted. Commentators such as myself have already expressed great discomfort with her comments. Her statements about Russia, Alaska and her fitness to lead in the international stage suggest to this writer naivete, ignorance and a flippant attitude toward the seriousness of having a deep understanding of international relations. Her statements to Couric profoundly underscore this impression, as reported this afternoon in in the Huffington Post:

COURIC: You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?


PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land-- boundary that we have with-- Canada. It-- it's funny that a comment like that was-- kind of made to-- cari-- I don't know, you know? Reporters--

COURIC: Mock?

PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that's the word, yeah.

COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.

PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our-- our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia--

COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We-- we do-- it's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where-- where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is-- from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to-- to our state.

URL link for above Couric interview.

Click here for a link to CBS News video showing the dizzyingly disorganized melange of cliches that constitutes Palin's thought [in Couric's interview with Palin]. All she does is string together phrases composed of standard economy and foreign policy buzzwords. Her speech does not indicate someone that has a well-conceived conception of policy.