Palin on Couric: This is Painful, and it isn't a Beauty Pageant

I don't know how anyone could put lipstick on this stinker. The woman clearly doesn't know anything and is just parroting associated phrases. She sounds like we all did in high school when we got called to give an oral presentation of a book review of a book we didn't read:

COURIC: You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land-- boundary that we have with-- Canada. It-- it's funny that a comment like that was-- kind of made to-- cari-- I don't know, you know? Reporters--

COURIC: Mock?

PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that's the word, yeah.

COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.

PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our-- our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia--

COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We-- we do-- it's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where-- where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is-- from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to-- to our state.

Great, she can't say "nuclear" or "caricature". And what's with the bizarro hand motions when she talks about Putin? Is she trying to cast a spell, or just distract us from the fact that she can't form coherent sentences? "...our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that I am the executive of"? Really? Canada and Russia are IN Alaska? She sounds like this. Sadly for those of us who might end up being ruled by this woman, this is a not a beauty contest.

But you think that part was bad? Watch her answer on the economy and the bailout. Translate this into conversational English if you can:

"That's why I say like every American I'm speaking with we're ill about this position that we have been put in, where it is the tax payers looking to bail out. But ultimately what the bail out does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. It's got to be all about job creation, shoring up our economy and putting it on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reigning in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. We've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive scary thing, but one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we've got to look at that as more opportunity, all those things under the umbrella of job creation."

So tax payers are looking to bail out, reducing taxes has to accompany tax reductions, health care reform shores up the economy, and trade is not scary. This is friggin amateur hour, and it's not funny any more.