Given all the criticism of Sarah Palin's poor performance in her interviews with Gibson and Couric, I am curious to know whether the questions Palin failed to answer are the type of knowledge a fairly intelligent person with above average exposure to American politics could be expected to acquire, or was it simply unreasonable to expect any candidate to retrieve such info off the cuff.
Score yourself on the Gibson/Couric quiz below:
GIBSON/COURIC QUIZ
ITEM ONE. If a few months ago, you would have known off the cuff that the Bush doctrine, as articulated right before the Iraq war was the notion of pre-emptive war, give yourself 2 points. If you would have known only (as Sarah Palin did) vaguely that Bush's doctrince is his world view, give your self 1 point.
ITEM TWO. If a week ago you could have quickly named or described off the top of your head a supreme court decision (other than Roe v Wade) that a republican politicians could publicly admit to disagreeing with (as Palin was unable to do), give yourself 1 point. If you could have cited 2 such decisions, give yourself 2 points. If you could have cited 3 such decisions, 3 points etc.
TOTAL SCORE: Your total score is the sum of the points you got on item one and item two. By my scoring, Palin got 1 point on item one, and 0 points on item two, for a total score of 1 point.