Fair Questions

Here's a simple test: Read these 20 reasonable questions that the press would like to ask potential President Sarah Palin. Ask yourself if she has the knowledge and wisdom to actually be able to answer them. Ask yourself if you want this woman as president of your country. Ask yourself if you want this woman thrown into a face-to-face situation with a hostile, cunning or lubricious world leader.

1. In a broad and long-term sense, would you have responded differently to the attacks of 9/11?
2. Is Iraq a democracy?
3. What’s the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?
4. What is your preferred plan for peace between Israel and Palestine? A two state solution? What about Jerusalem?
5. How do you feel about French President Nicolas Sarkozy's recent visit to Syria? Do you believe the United States should negotiate with leaders like President Bashar al-Assad?
6. Nearly 40 percent of the world's population lives in China and India. Who are those countries' leaders?
7. Do you support the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, which would lift restrictions on sales of nuclear technology and fuel to India, a country which hasn’t signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty?
8. Other than more drilling, what steps do you suggest the U.S. take in order to move toward energy independence? Do you believe more investment is needed in alternative energy research? If so, how would you recommend this funding be allocated?
9. How would you balance concerns over human rights and freedom in China with the United States' growing economic interdependence with that country?
10. What's more important: securing Russia's cooperation on nuclear proliferation and Iran, or supporting Georgia's NATO bid? If Vladimir Putin called you on the phone and said, "It's one or the other," what would you tell him?
11. Critique the foreign policy of the last administration. Name its single greatest success, and its most critical failure.
12. What do you think will be the most defining foreign-policy issue in the next five years?
13. What role should the United States play in the global effort to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS? Should it support contraception, or abstinence only?
14. You've said that the federal government spends too much money. What, in your view, is the appropriate level of spending as a percentage of GDP?
15. You're an advocate of reducing environmental restrictions on drilling. How much oil needs to be found in the United States before the country achieves energy independence?
16. What are your picks for the three most enlightening books written on foreign policy in the last five years?
17. Who among the world's leaders can be listed as the top three friends of the United States and why?
18. In your opinion, which U.S. president was the most successful world leader and why?
19. Which U.S. political thinkers, writers, and politicians would you enlist to advise you on matters of foreign policy and why?
20. Who is the first world leader you'd like to meet with and why?

Ask yourself honestly if you think Joe Biden or Barack Obama (or John McCain) haven't spent a fair portion of their years pondering these questions (and many others) and how to answer them. Ask yourself if you believe Sarah Palin has. It's a fair question.

By the way: It looks like Charlie Gibson, being the first to interview Sarah Palin, may not be tossing her the softball biopic questions that everybody thought he would. Check out this video teaser of the interview. Two questions: First, what does she think of the Bush Doctrine (which gives America the right of anticipatory self defense)? (Summary of the answer: She has no idea what it is, and grasps about in vague generalities until Mr. Gibson pushes her in the right direction.) Second, does she support unilateral American sorties into Waziristan without Pakistani permission or support? (Summary of the answer: She uses general campaign talking points and sound bites in vague generalities that could be used to answer any question regarding specifities and tactics of the war on terror in any country anywhere on the planet.)