Palin Fills the Tub with Talking Points

Robert Packwood, a long-time Republican senator, once said that politicians need to regularly fill up and empty the "tub" of knowledge. Politicians need to "fill the tub" with facts, arguments, and talking points on topics like Iraq when they are the center of national debate. But they also need to be able to "empty the tub" on that topic and fill it with another topic like "energy" when the debate moves on.

In her interview with Charlie Gibson tonight, Sarah Palin showed that she's "filled up the tub" with McCain campaign talking points and was able to stick to those points. She didn't know much in the way of facts and didn't have much of an idea of the arguments on issues like relations with Russia, the situation in Georgia, the Iranian nuclear program, and Israel. But she didn't often let herself be thrown off the talking points she had been given by the McCain campaign either.

No doubt the McCain campaign was relieved.

Here's an example. Palin made a comment about Russia bordering on Alaska. So media patsy Charlie Gibson gently prodded her on why that mattered:

GIBSON: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?
PALIN: They're our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.
GIBSON: What insight does that give you into what they're doing in Georgia?
PALIN: Well, I'm giving you that perspective of how small our world is and how important it is that we work with our allies to keep good relation with all of these countries, especially Russia. We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it's in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.

We cannot repeat the Cold War. We are thankful that, under Reagan, we won the Cold War, without a shot fired, also. We've learned lessons from that in our relationship with Russia, previously the Soviet Union.

We will not repeat a Cold War. We must have good relationship with our allies, pressuring, also, helping us to remind Russia that it's in their benefit, also, a mutually beneficial relationship for us all to be getting along.

Here, you can see where Palin's a skilled politician. Gibson asks her about what insight she has into Russia. Palin doesn't have any facts or arguments to answer that question, but she has the self-possession to ignore the question and recite her talking point about being able to "actually see Russia from land here in Alaska."

When the truth makes you look bad, maintaining a deceptive appearance is all you can do.

Gibson then "oh so gently" follows up with a question about the insight Palin has about Georgia from her close proximity to Russia. Not having any insight into Georgia either, Palin again seizes an opportunity to get in several talking points blather about "how small the world is" and how we're not going to have "another cold war" and "good relationships with allies."

There were a couple of points where Palin did trip up. She said something about the possibility of war with Russia and didn't have any idea what the "Bush doctrine" was.

These points will get some play in the liberal blogs, but Palin deployed her tub full of talking points in a way that achieved her overall goal of talking somewhat tough about foreign policy without seeming like a bullying wacko.

That's not bad considering that she really knows very little about the world and is unprepared to talk foreign policy on even the simplest level.