Nightime Politics

Nighttime politics.

* Great chart from Ezra Klein and Grist about the incredible insignificance of off-shore drilling.

* "Bush Doctrine" is the buzzword coming out of Sarah Palin's interview with Charlie Gibson—she seemed to not know what it was.

GIBSON: Do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?

PALIN: In what respect, Charlie?

GIBSON: The Bush -- well, what do you interpret it to be?

PALIN: His world view?

GIBSON: No, the Bush Doctrine, enunciated in September 2002, before the Iraq war.

PALIN: I believe that what President Bush has attempted to do is rid this world of Islamic extremism, terrorists who are hell-bent on destroying our nation. There have been blunders along the way, though. There have been mistakes made. And with new leadership -- and that's the beauty of American elections, of course, and democracy, is with new leadership comes opportunity to do things better.

GIBSON: The Bush Doctrine, as I understand it, is that we have the right of anticipatory self-defense; that we have the right to a preemptive strike against any other country that we think is going to attack us. Do you agree with that?

Here's the video. A lot of people are quoting Marc Ambinder's Twitter feed on this: "deer-in-the-headlights." A Republican in P.R. gives her a B- at TNR, writing:

I would give her a B or better, B-. I liked her confidence, combativeness but the answers were scripted, she had to repeat one mantra over and over again. What it shows about the way McCain's people are handling her is worse: they are trying to get her to memorize answers rather than being honest, within limits, about what she doesn't know.

* Sarah Palin dropped the thanks-but-no-thanks-for-that-Bridge-to-Nowhere lie from her speech today in Alaska. Pandering, or did she just know they'd see through it?

* Maybe the last word on Sarah Palin: Rasmussen reports she's bombing with moderates.

Among all voters:

39% very favorable
17% somewhat favorable
14% somewhat unfavorable
26% very unfavorable

Gee, approval ratings are just a few points off of 60% for the "wildly popular governor." But, let's look a little closer at those numbers. Conservatives love her, but what about moderates? Those numbers paint a different picture:

20% very favorable
15% somewhat favorable
26% somewhat unfavorable
35% very unfavorable
3% not sure

* Switzerland: the greenest country in the world.

* Followup on themes from the week: More numbers that suggest McCain can't win outside the South. Meanwhile, Daniel Nichanian at the Huffington Post talks more about the underappreciated importance of Obama's ground game.