First, a preemptive word. I have been getting like 50 or so hits on each of these posts on Sarah Palin. This says a couple things to me. Most of the people who are googling her name aren’t coming up with Supernova Earth’s site. And second, those who are keenly interested in reading about her (either against or for her) are not reading Supernova Earth. The right wingers continue to pay attention to their media, and the left wingers continue to pay attention to larger leftist blogs. This is fine. I write for myself anyway, and if someone else sees it, I am that much more famous for it. I raise this topic, because just this once I hope Sarah Palin visits my blog, so she can rectify some of her recently identified deficiencies.

Second, I want to make a note as to why I have dramatically increased my volume of posting since the conventions. Sarah Palin is just a great story. It is my opinion that she is less qualified than George Bush to have anything to do with the White House, and that is saying a lot. She regularly supplies material for a curmudgeon like me to write about. In short, I don’t know if I could help it but to write about her even if I wanted to.

Now to the meat. Let’s talk about Sarah Palin’s lack of knowledge about the Bush Doctrine. You can see her “soft” ball interview with Charles Gibson, but pay special attention to the line of questioning about the Bush Doctrine . Clearly (and pretty much everyone agrees) that she tripped on this one. “In what respect, Charlie?” is almost the stock answer to a “yes or now” question in which someone doesn’t know the context and doesn’t want to fuck it up. Ok Cool.

1st point. The media rallied to Palin’s defense on this one. Don’t believe me? Youtube is a remarkable resource where not only is a source usually cited, but you can watch the words coming out of someone’s mouth. I discovered there, after a one minute search, a clip of people on several news channels saying “Oh. Don’t worry about that. Nobody refers to it in these terms, nobody knows what the Bush Doctrine is. It’s no surprise that Palin doesn’t.” Here’s the link. No one knows what it is, so why should she? It is simply stunning to me that the corporate media is willing to give her a pass on this, because the Bush Doctrine is the ideological foundation for the war in Iraq. Period. No if’s ands or buts. All the rhetoric about WMD’s and then regime change, and then encouraging democracy, all the shifting justifications and shifting goal posts etc. That is ALL part of the Bush Doctrine and its subsequent corrections. You want to know why we are in Iraq to this day, you read that document.

2nd Point. But some will say “Well, this is a conspiracy theory. How come nobody else knew all about this? How can one document contain the blueprint for the screwed up military action in Iraq?” Look. I am not making this stuff up. You have gotta believe me. If you would only open your eyes you would see the truth! This is what I would say if I were a conspiracy theorist. But luckily for you, I can share with you my source. It’s a source inside the White House itself! Can you believe it?! And we have his name too. The document was commissioned by Bush himself. His signature is on it, on Page 5, (it is the only signature in the entire document.) And it is not something I have in my hand, that nobody can check me on. It is actually hosted at the White House’s web site. You can either click this link to get the HTML version or this link to get the entire document in pdf format. I kid you not. I just pulled it myself.

It’s not that hard a read, folks. It’s not some secret document that was classified, in any shape or form. As a matter of fact, it is a policy document which was written for public (albeit, an interested public, and apparently there aren’t that many of you all out there) consumption, and it was designed specifically to sell us a war. It was part of the general campaign to get Americans to buy into a war that they didn’t know they wanted. And you know, it worked fabulously. So if these people in the media, and if Sarah Palin DIDN’T know what the Bush Doctrine is (granted, it is not titled the “Bush Doctrine” but if you look up in wikipedia, you will find that this is the long-accepted street name for this National Security document, published as Gibson said, in 2002) they could have and probably should have. That they don’t demonstrates the fact that for years these people, both in the media, and in other parts of the government haven’t been doing their fucking jobs calling the President on his extra-legal activities.

Frankly I am insulted by these pundits suggesting that it really isn’t so important that she gets to get by not knowing what the 2002 NSS is or what it says, because she, more than any of us SHOULD know what it says. She gets a pass because she is far too busy being a good unquestioning conservative to have much time to care about the shit that our government is doing to our armed forces and the American People. Which brings me to my

3rd Point: Wanna know who DOES know what the Bush Doctrine is? What is says and what it actually means? Well, Charles Gibson knows what the Bush Doctrine is. Several pundits on corporate news know what it is, though apparently, if you ask them they would have to think about it for a second. Comedian Chuck Nice knows what the Bush Doctrine is. Most of the leftist bloggers apparently know what the Bush Doctrine is. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and everyone in the part of the executive branch of Government which had anything to do with the planning and execution of the Iraq War knows what it is. Tens of millions of Americans who oppose the War, and anti-War activists worldwide know precisely what the Bush Doctrine is. Any political scientist in this country (and several outside of this country) knows what it is. Millions of Iraqis who have been the targets of our bombs and patrols know precisely, but indirectly what the Bush Doctrine is. And *I* know what the Bush Doctrine is.

The difference is, none of us is a backward hack with a hokey way of telling conservatives exactly what they want to hear, trying to convince people that we are qualified to become Vice President of the United States.

4th Point. Can we say Dan Quayle Part II? No sarcasm here. There is a part of me that is looking forward to McCain winning so I have four more years worth of material to write about. But I will say honestly, I can envision myself becoming a praying man if McCain somehow does pull out a victory. I will pray that he doesn’t die while that social conservative dunce has the chance to become President of the US without ever having won a national election.

After all, we vote for the top of the ticket, not the bottom, and she never had to run in a national primary the way McCain, Obama or Biden did. She just got picked. And the only qualifications for “getting picked” are that you are over 35 and a US citizen (constitutional requirements), not from the same state as your running mate, and alive. Sarah Palin meets this bar, at least. Just like J. Danforth Quayle did.

(Quick disclaimer: I am from Indiana, and lived there when our state’s “favorite son” was VP, and Hoosiers STILL make Dan Quayle jokes. 16 years after he retired he is still one of the ways Hoosiers self-deprecate.)

Tags: Bush Doctrine, Charlie Gobson, Dan Quayle, Iraq, media, pass, preemptive war, Sarah Palin