Mark Penn: Press Losing Credibility on Palin

Carol Platt Liebau | September 12, 2008 3:48 PM

When Hillary Clinton's campaign advisor argues that the MSM's over-the-top coverage of Sarah Palin is denuding it of credibility, that's remarkable.

But it's also true. The most recent example? An effort to argue that

Sarah Palin didn't know what the "Bush doctrine" is. Well, actually, it's Charlie Gibson who misused the term.

As I noted last night (here), Gibson confused the Bush Doctrine (a substantive policy, like the Monroe Doctrine) with what's been routinely referred to in the media and everywhere else as the doctrine of preemption (a strategy). When I heard the question, I assumed Gibson was talking about the policy President Bush laid out in his second inaugural address:

[It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.

Heck, even wikipedia defines the Bush Doctrine as "various related foreign policy principles" of the President.

Update: The WaPo's Dan Froomkin likewise concedes that "I'm not sure anyone is entirely clear on what the Bush Doctrine is at this particular moment," despite bizarrely "appropriately being seen as emblematic of her ignorance of foreign policy."