I would add one more question: how will you address some of the most severe impacts of climate change such as sea level rise and water scarcity in sensitive regions of the world (e.g., China and India ), and what domestic and international institutions will turn to in order to do so?

These are great questions. I've found myself pondering a number of them while I should probably get back to work.

What are the ed.'s picks for question 16?

You're being too elitist and you're not treating her with respect!

No interview for you!

Some of these questions are really stretching it (16,19), and most we already know the answer too : she doesn't know. Why would Charlie Gibson even ask them?

Questions on Iraq, and Afghanistan ( ok, I liked the 9/11 one) would make more sense, considering the situation. Or even something on her position with the current Bush international policy. But to name the leaders of China and India? No offense, but I keep forgetting them myself. she'll be briefed on those when the time comes. If she can at least point the country correctly on a map and name their capital, that will be an improvement over some of the current officials.

The problem with that interview is I expect all of her answers to refer the fact that she's a blackberry drived christian hockey mom, who know how to "deal" with the unexpect.

i hope lieberman and her other minders don't read it :-) if abc asks the right questions they could make her look like a complete fool.

While I judge our leaders from a standard several cuts above the rest, can candidates always be expected to list names of leaders, books, experts, etc? Why not ask her the world's three most vital strategic choke points? Or the 5 most important international summits she will focus on? Awareness of details such as the difference between sunni and shia is certainly essential (and not knowing them is worrying), but being able to name and defend three policy books written in the last 5 years? I hope candidates are using the limited brain power they have to tackle the nearly limitless foreign policy issues for other things. Something about that question just strikes me as strange. Maybe the interviewer just wants to ask candidate Palin if she reads? Disclaimer: I am not a McCain/Palin supporter.

These questions are decidedly fair. If one wants to be the leader of the U.S.A., one should know these things (not to mention I imagine Palin would say 'if one wants to be American one should speak English').

Look at it another way: Do you want to be a doctor? You'll have to answer a much longer list of much harder questions than this. Do you want to be a truck driver? You'll have to take several tests with very specific questions to get your license. Do you want to earn your PhD in some academic field? You'll have to pass much more rigorous exams than that.

If those questions made Palin look unprepared for the job it would be because she is; we all know why she was picked and it's not for the right reasons. Seriously, of the list of professions above, a doctor could do some serious damage by not knowing the answers to important questions in her field; perhaps she would severely injure one person. In contrast, the VP could make decisions that affect millions of lives (like say those of untold thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians...)

Looks like the Anchorage Daily News had a similar idea and came up with a pretty good (if more Alaska-focused) list of their own.
Hope Charlie Gibson reads the internets.

This seems like a great Internet meme: the FP Sarah Palin test.

Who here is brave enough to post unresearched, Google-free answers?

Write Palin in a blog post and you get more comment than if it was something about GWB.

She's definitly hitting a nerve in the community.

Dear Mr. Gibson,
I would like to know Sarah Palin's platform on the following issues: Civil Rights, Corporations, Crime, Drugs, Education, Environment, Families/Children, Foreign Policy, Free Trade, Gun Control, Campaign Finance Reform, Healthcare, Homeland Security, Defense Spending, Torture, Immigration, Jobs, Social Security, Tax Reform, Technology, War & Peace, Iran, Iraq
Welfare & Poverty. These are all topics on website: www.ontheissues.org.

If you could also ask her about her bold faced lies in her RNC speech and why she continues to rattle them off on the campaign trail - lies like:
- The infamous bridge to nowhere and being the champion of reform (she is on the record to Fairbanks Daily news explaining that she is following direction FROM Congress and the Bush Administration who informed her that federal spending would be cut).
- The fact that in the last 2 yrs she has requested over $750 million in earmarks for Alaska (if she tries to compare to Obama - please remind her the population difference of Illinois to Alaska is that Illinois is 18.8 times the size of Alaska).
- Ask her what she thinks about the21st century GI bill and then ask her if she wants to retract her statement about Harry Reid (whom she mocked as "the majority Leader of the current "Do nothing senate") - the senate that passed the GI bill.
- Ask her about the fake soldiers used in the RNC video and the wrong Walter Reed.
- Ask her for a public apology to community organizers whom she mocked as lacking responsibility. Is she crazy?
- Ask her about the legislation that Obama wrote: During Obama's first (8) years of elected service (in Illinois) he sponsored over 820 bills. his 1st year in the US Senate, he authored 152 bills/ co-sponsored another 427. Some dealing with Vet Affairs, which maybe the reason why vets support Barack over McCain despite McCain/Palin exploiting them.

Tell her to tell Nancy Wallace -America Cares, that's who!

www.boycottpalin.com

The friendly little "20 Questions test" ignores, the artifice of a president actually having to make foreign policy decisions in seconds from memory and without a room-full of professional advisors, 535 clamoring "experts" on Capitol Hill, shelves of erudite briefing books, established protocols and precedents.

So how should Palin respond?

She studied Political Science in college, so she’s undoubtedly familiar with soft science dissembling on exams. But here’s THE TOP SECRET ANSWER KEY TO THE TEST .... http://speedzzter.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-palin-should-respond-to-foreign.html

http://speedzzter.blogspot.com

frank

What would the Ed's pick be for Question #18?

Anybody willing to grade my exam? I'm a software engineer not foreign policy guy, please bear in mind :)

1. In a broad and long-term sense, would you have responded differently to the attacks of 9/11?

Hindsight is always 20/20. Of course my response would have been different. We need far more human intelligence; the CIA's vast bureaucracy is not getting anything done. We did not need this much new intelligence bureaucracy, and
civil rights have taken an increased back seat to security. The equation must rebalance.

2. Is Iraq a democracy?

Broadly speaking, yes. Strictly speaking, the Iraqi people chose lists of parliamentarians.

3. What’s the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?

Two different sects of Islam. The split occured way back in the time of the prophet Mohammed, involving some sons and cousins and horses and anger and whatnot.

(searches) wikipedia says: The Shia believe Ali ibn Abi Talib was the true successor to Mohammad.

4. What is your preferred plan for peace between Israel and Palestine? A two state solution? What about Jerusalem?

I am a fan of city-states. I think Jerusalem should be an independently administered city-state, secured and policed by Israel.

As for Palestine, as well as other territorial disputes such as the Golan Heights, the geography itself contributes to much of the conflict. Were Israel to agree to the demands of all surrounding regions, it would be a tiny, unusually-shaped region with no easily defensible borders and reduced access to the sea.

I support a two-state solution, but that is not enough the quell the conflict in the region.

5. How do you feel about French President Nicolas Sarkozy's recent visit to Syria? Do you believe the United States should negotiate with leaders like President Bashar al-Assad?

I think we should split Syria from Iran by isolating Iran, and encouraging Syrian access to Western investment.

(searches) As this article notes, Syria is "coming in from the cold" and was never really as isolated as (by comparison) Iran.

6. Nearly 40 percent of the world's population lives in China and India. Who are those countries' leaders?

China: Hu Jintao
India: no idea. Is Mr. Singh still in power? (googles... yes!)

7. Do you support the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, which would lift restrictions on sales of nuclear technology and fuel to India, a country which hasn’t signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty?

Yes. Its value to the world outweighs the current remaining tattered shreds of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

8. Other than more drilling, what steps do you suggest the U.S. take in order to move toward energy independence? Do you believe more investment is needed in alternative energy research? If so, how would you recommend this funding be allocated?

Carbon tax! This will enable the market to decide how to best invest in new technology needed to attain carbon-free goals.

9. How would you balance concerns over human rights and freedom in China with the United States' growing economic interdependence with that country?

China has an appalling human rights record, let us be clear.

However, viewed over the decades China has opened up remarkably. We need to continue the policy of the past seven presidents: engagement with China, and help them come into the Western system of transparent government, free speech, and individualized human rights.

Encourage reformers within the Chinese Communist Party, so that the system of "electing" elites is at least more transparent.

China and India (as well as the United States) have demographics issues that will affect the entire world. We must educate our populations on the fallout this will create.

10. What's more important: securing Russia's cooperation on nuclear proliferation and Iran, or supporting Georgia's NATO bid? If Vladimir Putin called you on the phone and said, "It's one or the other," what would you tell him?

NATO should be disbanded, on the condition that a European mutual defense pact take its place.

America should then pledge immediately military assistance to this Euro-NATO for a period of time, to ensure that the disbanding of NATO does not cause immediate conflict.

Overall, the American military helps ensure safe global trade flow, enabling free trade. This is enormously beneficial. However, too often we are roped into being the "world's policeman" as Western democracies have, by in large, let their military strength and spending lapse.

We should reexamine this balance.

11. Critique the foreign policy of the last administration. Name its single greatest success, and its most critical failure.

America's "brand" has most definitely suffered damage. In general, I feel the ability of the world's citizens to look up to America as a role model to the world has diminished.

Certainly, America is going to act in the best interest of its citizens, but we can do so by following American principles of democracy, justice, transparency, and individual freedom.

12. What do you think will be the most defining foreign-policy issue in the next five years?

Competition for energy and natural resources, closely coupled with the rise of China and India, and worldwide diversification away from the US economy (not complete abandonment, just a rebalancing away from an overweight-US position).

13. What role should the United States play in the global effort to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS? Should it support contraception, or abstinence only?

Neither contraception nor abstinence should be excluded from educational materials and medical assistantance. Support for basic research should be
increased.

14. You've said that the federal government spends too much money. What, in your view, is the appropriate level of spending as a percentage of GDP?

Wild guess: no more than 3%?

(searches... good guess!)

15. You're an advocate of reducing environmental restrictions on drilling. How much oil needs to be found in the United States before the country achieves energy independence?

What a loaded question.

Given worldwide resource competition and existing needs, it makes sense to use an American resource rather than a foreign resource when that choice is available to us. That implies drilling and using America's natural resources.

But the government must also encourage investment in alternative solutions via a carbon tax, and do everything reasonable to encourage an upgraded energy grid supplied with nuclear energy.

16. What are your picks for the three most enlightening books written on foreign policy in the last five years?

This question is biased towards old media, and an antiquated method of data input.

I recently enjoyed War and Decision and The Human Factor.

17. Who among the world's leaders can be listed as the top three friends of the United States and why?

I would rather list countries, than world leaders.

UK, France and Canada would be the top three on my list. Through geography, history and culture, America shares much and owes much to these three.

18. In your opinion, which U.S. president was the most successful world leader and why?

The most successful in recent times would be Reagan, I'd argue. Winning the Cold War and helping set the ideological framework for blossoming democracies are pretty big achievements, and we've been following his path in several countries, for years now.

19. Which U.S. political thinkers, writers, and politicians would you enlist to advise you on matters of foreign policy and why?

Noam Chomsky and Max Boot! Ok, just kidding.

I admit I cannot name drop like a presidential candidate here, and say "pass"

20. Who is the first world leader you'd like to meet with and why?

The current leadership of China at the time I'm elected. Engagement with China will be critical for the United States in years to come, and looming trade and demographics issues come to the fore. An active, engaged relationship with China will be critical to the success of the next president's foreign policy.

"You've said that the federal government spends too much money. What, in your view, is the appropriate level of spending as a percentage of GDP?"

The appropriate level of spending is whatever will fund the essential services of government, and no more. GDP has nothing to do with it. What, government is supposed to grow as the economy gets bigger? (You think it's going to shrink if the economy goes into recession? History says precisely the opposite.) And since 70% of GDP is consumption, the premise behind the question becomes even sillier, because it implies the size of government should be tied to the level of consumer spending. Sheesh!

1. As the world grows more economically interdependent, what thoughts have you on the desired transformational roles and relationships of the following institutions?

The United States Federal Reserve
World Trade Organization
International Monetary Fund
World Bank
Bank For International Settlement
Group of Seven

2.In your opinion, what specific goals and reforms would deliver the most beneficial effects to the global community of peoples, offsetting or balancing the trend toward corporatocracy?

Another question. What do you really know about Barak Obamas youth and his connections to the man that is responsible for wanting to terrorize the US. Oh and we asked Obama the same 20 plus questions and he is glad we have 57 states, the Niddely Lions and New Pennsylvania as a state.

I certainly agree with the relevance of all these questions, and the importance of a future world leader being able to answer them. However, framing your discussion with comments calling Sarah Palin a "lipstick-wearing hockey mom" are totally unnecessary. It makes this entire post seem paternalistic. Those types of comments are EXACTLY what will PUSH undecided, moderate women voters to Sarah Palin. The connotation is that women who wear lipstick (or take their kids to sporting practice) know nothing about foreign policy and are not "appropriate" for politics. I am not doubting that Palin is woefully negligent in this area, but it has nothing to do with lipstick or her children. Her record and comments already speak volumes. It is imperative that the media discusses her candidacy without resorting to sexist comments.

2. Is Iraq a democracy?

stupid question

8. Other than more drilling, what steps do you suggest the U.S. take in order to move toward energy independence? Do you believe more investment is needed in alternative energy research? If

GOP does not support development of alternative fuels.

12. What do you think will be the most defining foreign-policy issue in the next five years?

1 nuclear weapons,
2 usa standing in world
3 reducing muslim extremist impact on world.

13. What role should the United States play in the global effort to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS? Should it support contraception, or abstinence only?

HA - palin cant answer this!

15. You're an advocate of reducing environmental restrictions on drilling. How much oil needs to be found in the United States before the country achieves energy independence?

PALIN said it would be possible but it is NOT!

16. What are your picks for the three most enlightening books written on foreign policy in the last five years?

she reads?? LoL

huntington!

17. Who among the world's
leaders can be listed as the top three friends of the United States and why?

to start - our allies who assist us many times
great britain
japan
austraila

and with whom, we have great bonds

developing Poland for one

germany,
france have been in that category in the past
perhaps they can be that in the future

18. In your opinion, which U.S. president was the most successful world leader and why?

FDR world leader , not one who jus interfaced with world leaders

19. Which U.S. political thinkers, writers, and politicians would you enlist to advise you on matters of foreign policy and why?

Bill Clinton
henry kissinger

20. Who is the first world leader you'd like to meet with and why?

Chinas premier

1. What are your plans to make America Better from the stand point of being the V.P.?

2. What are the exact duties that the V.P. does?

3. Do you believe that community organizers are less important? Do you think they provide a good service to the communities they serve?

4. How do you explain that during your term as Mayor, you're town had no long term debt. When you left office, you left it with a $19m deficit.

5. In highering a lobbiest to lobby $27m in pork, do you see yourself as a candidate of change?

6. Why on your campaign for Gov. did you campaign on the bridge to nowhere as a necessary for the economics of Alaska? Why did you then turn and denounce the project only after the public out cry?

7. What have you discussed with McCain about his negative remarks about the bridge?

8. How do you consider yourself to be a candidate of change, when your state under your term as Gov. lobbied for more than $750m in pork. Which per capita, was nearly #3000.00 per citizen and the next closest state to Alaska was $295.00 per?

9 When giving each resident of Alaska $3000.00 annually for oil returns due to high gas prices... did you not think that all Americans should have shared in that?

10 Why have you been misleading America on your Bridge to nowhere in saying that you axed the project. When in fact the Federal government axed it. And how did you spend the $225m that tax payers of others state donated to the project? Did you feel that a refund to the tax payers was more appropriate? Rather than keep it and use it for your pet projects?

11 If you are a candidate of change, why is your campaign staffers filled with 85% of George Bush's previous campaign staffers?

12 Please explain to the American people exactly what happened in the trooper gate case.

13. Explain to the American people, why was it that you threw your commissioner (and friend) under the bus for using Gov. e-mail for personal use, when in fact you have had to applogize for doing that exact same thing while running for Lt. Gov. of your state?

14. Explain your resoning for firing the Police Commisioner?

15. Why the need to fire the trooper, exactly what did he do that warrented such action? And wouldn't that be the Comissioners call not the Gov.. Maybe it was actually personal?

16. Explain to the American people, why you have not been allowed to interview since your announcement? Why would someone seeking the 2nd highest office not be capible of answering questions immediately?

17. What exactly did you do in leading the National Guard, that you think atributes to your claim this is experience needed. What qualifies this as experience?

18 If you were to assume the duties of the Presidency, how would you respond to the crisis in Russia, how would you handle the crisis in Iran?

19. What would you do to end the war in Iraq?

20. Since the present administration failed to capture Bin-Ladin, what will you do differently?

So - how did Obama do on this exam? Did he need crib notes?

BTW - just how much experience in foreign affairs or energy policy does “community organizing” provide to its practioners? Maybe Obama picked up a lot in the Illinois state legislature. Or maybe those 143 days he spent in the U.S. senate provided all he needs.

10.What's more important: securing Russia's cooperation on nuclear proliferation and Iran, or supporting Georgia's NATO bid? If Vladimir Putin called you on the phone and said, "It's one or the other," what would you tell him?

hello Vladimir i hear its nice down at the beach today.Why don't you take a trip down there and start pounding sand . We are supporting Georgia's bid to enter NATO along with Ukraine .

My question would be for Joe Biden. If Joe is such a foreign policy expert and so smart

1) How did he let President Bush trick him into going to war?

2) Do you know what the difference is between a Brigade and Battalion?

My question for Barack Obama.

1) Please explain how visiting your college roommate makes you an expert in Foreign Affairs?

These are excellent questions. I'm wondering if you have proposed a similar list for Obama, who is running for President as opposed to Vice-president. I would actually love to hear the responses from all 4 candidates.

There is no way Obama would be able to answer these questions. Some of the questions are clearly designed to make the person look bad - Quick! What are three most enlightening books you've read of foreign policy? Can't name three right away? - clearly a bad VP candidate.

They're fair questions, but, at the same time, it'd be great if someone actually took the time to ask them of the Democratic PRESIDENTIAL nominee.

Guest1.1
I think the next question should be,
In a recent poll, it was determined that most Russians would prefer Senator Obama to win the presidential elections in the United States. Do you think this is due to his original statements on the Russian invasion of Georgia?

I'd like Barack Obama and John McCain to answer these questions.

Your Gotcha! questions for Sarah Palin are a perfect revelation of your political views. Governor Palin is a woman of profound values that Americans recognize as their. Our elites have chosen different values. But Harry Truman, FDR, Abraham Lincoln, not to mention Senator Obama, Zbigniew Brzezninsky and Henry Kissinger do not know the answers. That's why they had staffs.

Your list is Gotchas! demonstrates your intellectual superiority. It's good to be smart, but it's not smart to be arrogant.

was it the only town that billed Rape victims?

can you provide link?

As (an economist magazine journalist) put it mildly: "For now the conversation about Mrs Palin is at the fore. If Mrs Palin does emerge as the party’s leading figure she might be able to get over, with some studying, her difficulties with maps and her knowledge of international affairs."

Well, in hindsight, we ALL know how well her INTERVIEWS worked out...she can´t tell us WHAT SHE READS, never mind REAL QUESTIONS. As softball as the interviewers WERE and continue to be, they have exposed Sarah Palin as a fraud.

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Cv interview questions