Disabled?: Sarah Palin

The Dems (Charlie Rangel just the latest) have again showed their penchant for willful misinterpretation. Many have seized on Sarah Palin's comment to Charlie Gibson about being able to see Russia. They've been guffawing into their martinis ever since; Rangel even said she was "disabled."

Let's admit it: on it's face, Palin's remark was a damned silly thing to say. It certainly made her seem less substantial than she really is.

At the same time, however, the Dems have sunk yet again into intentional distortion. Although they would have us interpret Palin's comment at the most literal (and thus damning) level, she was obviously not claiming that being able to see Russia made her a foreign policy expert.

In context, she plainly meant that the proximity of Russia to Alaska gives her a sense of the importance of foreign policy regarding Russia. For many (like Charlie Gibson), Russia is an unreal, abstract issue. For at least some in Alaska, however, Russia (like global warming and Arctic oilfields) is real--a physical place, visible not just as a historical adversary but as a place with a coastline--and thus to be taken seriously.