In a near panic now to find anything of usefulness which can be used against her in the few weeks still remaining them, the small army of Palin-wary media paparazzi in action have realized that they don’t even have the time to properly examine “the dirt” they are so desperately trying to dig up. They just breathlessly toss up whatever they find with both hands and then move on the next digging.

The interview with Charles Gibson yesterday wasn’t only her first one since accepting the nomination of GOP vice presidential candidate, it was also the first of what will be a thankfully not-all-too-long series of strange encounters to come. Journalists know that the window of opportunity left open to them is closing fast and if they want to nail her on something, they had better do so now.

So what were yesterday’s shocking realizations? Those were thin pickings indeed. Palin’s first and foremost sin, as far as I have been able to gather from reading the news reports, was not immediately knowing what Gibson was referring to when he asked her about the Bush Doctrine (it holds that the United States can wage preemptive war against hostile nations).

This is indeed a serious matter indeed, I know, being that about 90% of Americans asked would not be able to tell you immediately what it is, either. But in that I consider myself to be somewhat educated and didn’t know myself, I’ll forgive her just this one time (she’s “one of us”, remember?).

Her next big “stumbles” involved calling the Russian incursion into Georgia last month “unprovoked” (it was of course provoked, by the Russians - the Georgian president just fell into their trap) and saying how thankful she was that “under Reagan, we won the Cold War.” The Soviet Union actually collapsed three years after the Reagan presidency, but would it have collapsed when it did without it? Hardly.

Then, after being on the same sheet of music with everyone else out there and supporting Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO, she had the shocking openness to say she could imagine going to war with a country which attacked said members of the alliance, this being Russia in this scenario, of course. Wow, what a scorcher. She is clearly turning what we had thought to be the meaning of joining a defensive alliance on its head.

We’re all thinking supposed to be thinking the next dumb Republican, right? And she’s a dumb woman one at that. And she’s clearly aggressive as hell, too. The next thing you know, after declaring war on Russia, she’ll “be willing to attack inside Pakistan with or without approval from the Pakistani government.” That would be sheer madness, wouldn’t it? Oh wait, that’s been suggested by somebody else already, by Senator Barack Obama (I knew there was something about that guy I liked).

Well, better luck next time you guys from the press. You’re going to have to do a whole lot better than that. And don’t forget: Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tick, tick…

Come visit me at Observing Hermann…