Sarah Palin pronounces “nuclear” like President Bush, “nucular.” Ya know, Ya gotta wonder whether “Charlie” came through for ABC viewers, or whether the game afoot is really a jig up. Or trap set. But for whom?

Any number of Palin’s handlers could have made sure Palin sat up straight, or wasn’t positioned to be talked down to by her white male elder. Unless it was meant to look that way.

Gibson’s questions were plain and straightforward, and probably inherently condescending. Could Palin have failed them more miserably? Where could Gibson have gone that wasn’t going to make this Hockey Mom look like she was clutching her purse at a job interview?

Most intriguing to me was the question about the “Bush Doctrine.” Palin didn’t know what it is, but I’d hazard to say neither do you. It’s not like the Monroe Doctrine, or whatever doctrine rebuilt Europe, it’s the term the media has dubbed for George Dubya’s cowboy foreign policy, and obviously they don’t make a big critical to-do about it with us. Cornering Sarah Palin into trying to conceal that she had no clue to its definition, made the interview look like an ambush.

Can you recite the “Bush Doctrine?” If newsmen and analysts would spell it out, the American public would have called for Bush’s immediate impeachment. Now Palin, thrust cleverly into the role as OUR surrogate, is expected to know what the media has left unspoken?

At first glance I thought ABC came out more aggressively than I expected. Palin certainly did not disappoint with her face plant. But maybe a good many potential McCain voters are going to see their hopes victimized by whatever subtle “shove” they think pushed Sarah over. Especially coming from what they believe to be the Left-leaning media which led Palin unto the ice. Right wing self-described feminists are going to see themselves as victim to Gibson’s paternalistic tone.

ABC may have allowed itself to look like a bully, without asking any of the hard questions about all the representations Palin made in her speech at the RNC. Lies which she’s being allowed to repeat unchanged at every subsequent rally. If they had, at least we’d have answers that Palin would be qualified to give, the proverbial rope with which she’d hang herself.