Bob Herbert on Sarah Palin

Bob Herbert's commentary on Palin's interview with Katie Couric is a good one, but in my opinion he focused on the wrong parts of the interview. First of all, while one would not expect a more seasoned politician to handle a momentary loss of words as poorly as Palin did, and I too found that a bit excruciating to watch, I don't think it's any indication of her intelligence or ability. We all make mistakes of that sort, just mostly not on national television. But the part of the interview that shocked me the most was Palin's reduction of armed conflict into "good guys" vs. "bad guys." Her insistence on calling Israel the "good guys" and Iran the "bad guys" was more than naive: it was childish and even offensive. Is the world really that black and white to her? I would suspect it is. She certainly acts as though it is. I'm terrified at the thought of having a president who is unable to even think about the intricacies of foreign policy. Who actually considers Israel to be flat-out "good guys."

And aside from the deep implications of all of this, how ridiculous was it to hear a supposed national leader go on and on about good guys and bad guys? For real? It would be funny if it weren't so frightening and embarrassing.