Sarah Palin Shines On ABC News

Hugh Hewitt blogs:

Charles Gibson threw fastballs –fair, but hard fastballs– and Sarah Palin connected on every one save the Bush Doctrine and even there she recovered nicely, demonstrating a poise that will serve her very well in the next 54 days.

Gibson’s job is to press (and would that anyone in MSM had conducted as remotely a focused interview with Obama, complete with interruptions and three or four follow-ups on some subjects), and McCain-Palin backers should cheer such interviews. Pointed questions about serious subjects provide her an opportunity to shine, which she frequently did in the portions shown tonight.  Some of the assumptions behind Gibson’s questions –that meeting foreign leaders is itself an important credential–are widely shared among Manhattan-Beltway media elites even though they fail to impress middle America, and Palin has to display a comfortable disregard for the sneer of the political elite when such assumptions surface.  She did just that in the interview.  Good for her. Her defense of her comments on God’s plan was perfect pitch.  Every evangelical in the U.S. and most other people who have ever heard a prayer for the troops understood immediately what she was saying on the tape from her church and what she said tonight.  And not only understood, but approved.

Palin’s sincere pride in her son’s choice to serve the country is the defining exchange, the one that will resonate far and wide.  Gibson’s major misstep was his assertion that he "got lost in a blizzard of words," when Palin avoided the very sort of provocative declaration about Pakistan that seasoned diplomats always avoid.  Palin was demonstrating the very sort of careful choice of words that Obama would have benefitted from before bringing up lipstick.  My mail shows a lot of hostility to Gibson, but I think that is misplaced.  We want tough interviews of all four candidates.  We just want them of both tickets, with the same abruptness when Obama filibusters and stammers.